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JOACHIM MURAT 




JOACHIM MURAT, AFTERWARDS KIM; OF NAPLES 

/ KROM THE I'AINTING ISY GEKARD AT VERSAILLES 



JOACHIM MURAT 

MARSHAL OF FRANCE AND KING OF NAPLES 



BY 



A. MILLIARD ATTERIDGE 



WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
AND THREE MAPS 



NEW YORK 

BRENTANO'S 

1911 



.% 






V 






CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
FIRST YEARS (1767-1795) 

PAGE 

The Murats — Joachim's youth at La Bastide, Cahors and Toulouse 
— enlists in the cavalry — the Revolution — the Fete of the 
Federation — flight of the King — a love affair — the Constitu- 
tional Guard — promoted Lieutenant — aide-de-camp to d'Urre — 
Mion Bastit — treason of Dumouriez — Murat promoted Captain 
— service with Landrieux's ' poacher-hussars ' — war services — 
quarrel with Landrieux — Thermidor — Murat a while in prison — 
rejoins regiment in Paris — helps Bonaparte on the day of 
Vendemiaire — promoted Colonel i 

CHAPTER n 

THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY (1796-1798) 

Murat chef-de-brigade and aide-de-camp to Bonaparte in Italy — 
goes to Paris with dispatches — rejoins army as General de 
Brigade — Valeggio and Mantua — mission to Genoa^ — capture of 
Leghorn — taken prisoner at Brescia — with Massdna in the Tyrol 
— relations with Bonaparte — Rivoli — fall of Mantua — march into 
Venetia — meets Caroline Bonaparte— mission to the Valtellina — 
with Bonaparte at Rastatt — Roman expedition . . . .21 

CHAPTER III 
EGYPT AND SYRIA (1798-1799) 

Attached to the 'Army of the East' — Malta — landing in Egypt — 
Rosetta — a narrow escape — battle of the Pyramids — Murat 
Governor of Kelioub — action at Damanhour — Syrian expedition 
— battle before Gaza — Acre — Murat in northern Palestine — relief 
of Safed — siege of Acre raised — retreat to Egypt — battle of 
Aboukir — Murat wounded and promoted to General of Division 
— sudden return to France with Bonaparte 38 

CHAPTER IV 

BRUMAIRE— MARRIAGE TO CAROLINE BONAPARTE— 
MARENGO (1799-1800) 

Murat's share in coup cPitat of Brumaire — leads attack on the Five 
Hundred — message to Caroline — death of Pierre Murat — Murat 
married — commander of cavalry of the 'Army of Reserve' — pro- 
jp' .s for the Italian campaign — passage of the Alps — action at 
iialliate — entry into Milan — fall of Genoa — Marengo — Murat 
returns to Paris with Bonaparte 52 



vi JOACHIM MURAT 

CHAPTER V 

THE 'ARMY OF OBSERVATION '—COMMAND IN 
ITALY (1S00-1801) 

PAGE 

Letters to La Bastide — the camp of Beauvais — command at Dijon 
— Murat at Geneva and Milan — serves in Italy under General 
Brune — march into central Italy — affairs of Naples — Ancona 
occupied — birth of Achille Murat — Murat as a diplomatist — the 
Neapolitan treaty — Murat at Rome — returns to Florence — 
affairs of Egypt — Murat and Caroline — inauguration of the new 
' Kingdom of Etruria' — conquest of Elba — Murat appointed 
Commander-in-Chief of the 'Army of Italy' with headquarters 
at Milan 67 



CHAPTER VI 

MURAT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN (1801-1803) 

Reports on the affairs of the Cisalpine Republic — a new Constitu- 
tion — Caroline at Milan — Peace of Amiens — Murat's fortune — 
revisits Paris — marriage of Louis Bonaparte and religious 
marriage of Murat and Caroline — return to Milan — the Constitu- 
tion proclaimed — mysterious visit to Paris — Rome and Naples — 
birth of a daughter — Murat provides for his nephews and nieces 
— quarrels with Vice-President Melzi — troubles with Italian 
Liberals — Bonaparte insists on reconciliation with Melzi — birth 
of Lucien Murat — outbreak of war — quarrel with St. Cyr . . 86 

CHAPTER Vn 

MURAT MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS (1803-1S05) 

Murat summoned to Paris — the elections — visit to La Bastide and 
Cahors — elected to the Assembly — Military Governor of Paris — 
affair of the Due d'Enghien — coming of the Empire — Murat 
Marshal, Imperial Prince and Grand Admiral — the Elysee given 
to Caroline — the Coronation — projects against England — im- 
pending war with Austria — reconnaissance of south Germany — 
Murat Grand-Master of the Cavalry and Lieutenant-General of 
the Emperor — General Belliard — Murat at Strasburg— march 
into Germany — a forecast loi 

CHAPTER VHI 

THE CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ (1805) 

Murat screens the great turning movement round Ulm — passage 
of the Danube — Wertingen — dispute with Ney — Murat's mis- 
takes — Haslach and Elchingen — Mack trapped at Ulm — pursuit 
of the Archduke Ferdinand — advance into Austria — Murat 
occupies Vienna — seizes the Danube bridge by a trick — 
Hollabrun and Austerlitz — death of Murat's mother . . • 119 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER IX 

MURAT GRAND DUKE OF BERG— THE JENA 
CAMPAIGN (1806) 

PAGE 

Remodelling of Germany — the Grand Duchy of Berg — Murat's 
entry into his capital — quarrel with Bliicher over the possession 
of Essen and Werden — Napoleon preserves the peace — affair of 
the fortress of Wesel — Agar, Count of Mosbourg — Murat in 
Paris — Caroline helps him to obtain enlargement of his duchy — 
war with Prussia — Murat again commands the cavalry — Jena 
and Auerstadt 138 

CHAPTER X 

THE PURSUIT AFTER JENA— WARSAW— THE EYLAU 
CAMPAIGN (1806-1807) 

Erfurt — the dash for Berlin — surrender of Spandau — battle of 
Prenzlau — surrender of Hohenlohe's army — Lasalle takes Stettin 
— Napoleon's congratulations — pursuit of Bliicher and Weimar 
— they surrender at Ratkau — results of the pursuit — Murat sent 
to Warsaw — hopes of the Polish crown — Poniatowski and the 
sword of Bathori — fighting on the Narev — campaign in East 
Prussia — Eylau — the great cavalry charge — informal truce and 
winter quarters 149 

CHAPTER XI 

HEILSBERG, FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT— THE SPANISH 
ADVENTURE (1807-1808) 

Reorganization of the cavalry — battle of Heilsberg — pursuit after 
Friedland — Murat receives Russian request for an armistice — 
Tilsit — Murat disappointed in his hopes for Poland — returns to 
Paris with Napoleon — Caroline's court at the Elysee — current 
gossip about her conduct — marriage of Antoinette Murat — a link 
with the Franco-German war — increase of territory of Berg — 
Murat's plans suddenly changed by a mission to Spain — his in- 
structions — hurried departure for Bayonne 165 

CHAPTER XII 

MURAT LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF THE EMPEROR 
IN SPAIN (1808) 

Occupation of the northern fortresses of Spain — Murat at Vittoria 
and Burgos — first signs of trouble — optimism of Napoleon — 
Murat ordered to occupy Madrid — revolt at Aranjuez — Murat 
acts as arbiter between rival parties — arranges for future of 
Spain to be at Napoleon's disposal — suppresses rising of 2 May 
— expects the crown of Spain — suddenly hears Joseph is to have 
it — offered choice of Portugal or Naples — accepts crown of 
Naples — illness and disappointment 176 



viii JOACHIM MURAT 

CHAPTER XIII 

JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES (1808-1812) 

PAGE 

Visit to Paris — entry into Naples — difficulties and disappointments 
— expedition to Capri — Napoleon's ill-humour — continual friction 
between him and Murat — Caroline's position — war of 1809 — 
Anglo-Sicilian expedition against Naples — divorce of Josephine 
Murat at the family council at Paris— failure of Murat's Sicilian 
expedition — Napoleon's displeasure — growing alienation of Murat 
— projects for making himself independent of Napoleon — birth 
of the ' King of Rome'— temporary reconciliation and renewed 
friction — Caroline intervenes — war with Russia — Murat to com- 
mand cavalry of the Grand Army 198 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA (1812) 

Murat's conduct as a cavalry leader — failure at Wilna — scene with 
Montbrun — heavy losses in horses — was Murat to blame? — 
advance to Smolensk — quarrels of Murat and Davout — Cossack 
tactics— Borodino — Murat enters Moscow — touch with the enemy 
lost — Moscow on fire — Russians reappear south of the city — 
Murat defeated at Winkowo — the retreat — terrible losses of the 
cavalry — Napoleon suddenly starts for Paris, leaving Murat in 
command of the Grand Army 222 

CHAPTER XV 

MURAT LEAVES THE ARMY— RETURN TO NAPLES- 
QUARREL WITH NAPOLEON — OVERTURES TO 
THE ALLIES— GOES TO DRESDEN (1812-1813) 

Retirement across the Niemen — Berthier's warning letters to 
Napoleon — Murat's outburst against the Emperor — defection of 
the Prussians — further retirement — Murat hands the command 
over to Eugene and starts for Naples — anger of Napoleon — 
Murat at Caserta — negotiations with Austria — and England — 
armistice in Germany — Murat's perplexities — ultimatum from 
the French ambassador at Naples — Caroline appeals to Napoleon 
— he summons Murat to Dresden 239 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE LEIPZIG CAMPAIGN— MURAT ABANDONS THE 
FALLING EMPIRE— TREATY WITH AUSTRIA- 
HESITATING PART IN THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN 
(1813-1814) 

Temporary reconciliation with Napoleon — brilliant part in the 
victory of Dresden — Leipzig — return to Italy — relations with 
Italian patriots — negotiations with Austria — Fouche intervenes 



CONTENTS ix 

EAGE 

— Neapolitan army goes north — Austria forces a decision — 
Treaty of Naples makes Murat her ally — he joins his army — 
correspondence with Eugene — strange overtures to Napoleon 
— fighting at Rubiera and Reggio — fall of Paris — end of the 
Italian campaign 256 

CHAPTER XVII 

MURAT RAISES THE STANDARD AGAINST AUSTRIA 
—DEFEAT AND DISASTER— MURAT A FUGITIVE 
DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS— THE TRAGEDY 
OF PIZZO (1814-1815) 

Murat's anxieties about his position at Naples — projects for head- 
ing an Italian movement— Napoleon escapes from Elba — Murat 
declares war against Austria — disastrous campaign — flight from 
Naples — reaches Cannes — Napoleon refuses to see him — news 
of Waterloo — the 'White Terror' — Murat a fugitive — reaches 
Corsica — adventures there — project of a raid on Calabria — offer 
of an asylum in Austria — Murat's expedition sails from Ajaccio 
— gives up his project and decides to go to Trieste — sudden 
change of plans — landing at Pizzo and call to arms — Murat a 
prisoner— the court-martial — last letter to his family — Murat and 
Canon Masdea — the execution 276 

APPENDIX 

NOTE ON SOME SOURCES AND AUTHORITIES FOR 

THE LIFE OF JOACHIM MURAT 298 

INDEX 301 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

/ 

JOACHIM MURAT, afterwards King of Naples . . Frontispiece 
From the painting by Gerard at Versailles 

FACING PAGE J 

CAROLINE BONAPARTE, about the time of her marriage . 56 
From a lithograph by Delpech 

MURAT IN COURT COSTUME— as Grand Duke of Berg . 144 

After the painting by Gerard 

J 
MURAT WITH NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF EYLAU . 162 

From the painting by Baron Gros in the Louvre, Paris 

MARIE CAROLINE, Queen of Naples 208 

From an engraving by Marie Anne Bourlier 

THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW 232 

From the painting by Meissonier in the Louvre, Paris 

(Photograph by W. A. Mansell) / 

JOACHIM MURAT, King of Naples 272 

From a lithograph by Schubert {Collection, A. RiscHGlTZ) 

LIST OF PLANS 

THE CAMPAIGN OF ULM, 1805 120 

MURAT'S PURSUIT OF KUTUSOFF AND SEIZURE OF 

VIENNA 129 

MURAT'S PURSUIT OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY AFTER 

JENA AND AUERSTAD 150 



JOACHIM MURAT 

CHAPTER T 

FIRST YEARS 
1767-1705 

CAHORS Is a quaint old-world city of Guienne, 
One might call it a country town were it not for 
its twelfth-century cathedral, which gives a claim 
to higher rank. Its steep, narrow streets climb the hill 
round which the river Lot loops in a close curve forming 
in old days the moat for its ramparts. The ruined 
afiucduct is a monument of still older times when it was 
a Roman colony. There are vineyards on the hillsides 
around, and the wine trade helps to keep the place ?jusy ; 
and there are malodorous tanneries in the outskirts and 
the smoking chimneys of potteries. 

The people of the city and the district, of which it is the 
local capital, belong to the race of the Gascon borderland 
— Frenchmen, but with a difference. There is the fire of 
the south in their blood and their brains, and a tempera- 
ment that helps to wild adventure, bold speculation, 
imagination that may take the turn either of boastfulness 
or romancing. There is a strain of the mysterious Basque 
race in these quick-witted, nervous men of the Dordogne 
and the Lot and Garonne, perhaps, too, a tinge of non- 
European blood from the time of the Moorish conquest. 
This local temperament must not be left out of account 
in telling the strange story of a man who was born in 
this country of Cahors a little more than twenty years 
before the great Revolution gave quick-witted, daring men 



2 JOACHIM MURAT 

wonderful opportunities — the son of a country innkeeper, 
who fought his way to a kingdom. 

A few miles north of Cahors, on a ba^e, almost treeless, 
plateau, stands the village of La Bastide, It is now known 
as Bastide Murat ; it used to be La Bastide Fortoniere, or 
La Bastide en Quercy. Here, when Louis Quinze was King 
of France, Pierre Murat and his wife, Jeanne Loubieres, kept 
the village inn and posting-house. A prosperous man was 
Pierre Murat, for, besides the profits of his hostelry, he was 
intendant or agent for the Talleyrands, who were the great 
landowners of the district. He belonged to the better class 
of small country folk, though in the registry of his marriage 
he is described as a ' travailleur.' Pierre's father, in the 
marriage contract, dated lo January, 1746, gives him half 
his property, which shows that if he was a ' worker ' it was 
on lands held by his people. His wife, Jeanne Loubieres, 
brought him as her dowry forty- two livres (that is francs, not 
pounds sterling), some household stuff in the way of sheets 
and linen, some pewter for the table, a sheep and its lamb, 
and a coffre, the oaken chest that contained the trousseau 
the French girl of the country then as now made with 
her own needle. At the inn of La Bastide there were 
five children of the marriage, two sons and three daughters, 
senior to Joachim Murat. ^ He was bom on 25 March, 
1767, and baptized next day in the parish church of La 
Bastide. He was given the name of Joachim in honour of 
his godfather, Joachim Vidieu.^ 

In the days of the Terror an attempt was made to bring 
Murat under the law of the ' suspects ' by proving that he 
was an aristocrat by birth. It was then that he procured 

^ There were twelve children in all, but six had died in infancy. 

* The record in the church register of La Bastide gives the Murats a 
second surname which does not appear in the contract and registry of 
Pierre's marriage. The record made by the cure runs thus : — 

'L'an mil sept cent soixante et sept, et le vingt et cinquieme jour du 
mois de mars, est ne dans la presente paroisse Joachim Murat-Jordy, 
fils legitime de Pierre Murat-Jordy et de Jeanne Loubieres, de la pr6sente 
paroisse, et a ete baptise le vingt et six du dit mois dans I'eglise de la 
presente paroisse, par moy soussigne. Parrain a ete Joachim Vidieu, 
de la presente paroisse, marraine Jeanne Albrespit, cousine germaine 
du baptis6, de la presente paroisse.' 



FIRST YEARS 3 

from the authorities of La Bastide copies ol his father's 
contract of marriage and his own registration of baptism, 
and was better pleased to see that old Pierre had been 
officially described as a ' travailleur ' than if he had posed 
as a landed proprietor even on the smallest scale. 

Joachim Murat was a younger son. The law of equal 
division of property was still in the future, and it was 
intended that his eldest brother Andre should inherit the 
inn of La Bastide and the little farm. The army, the 
navy, the civil service, were all careers in which there 
was a poor prospect for the son of a commoner, and still 
more for a country-bred commoner's son. The nobles and 
the wealthy townsfolk were the only people who could look 
for certain promotion and safely prosperous careers in the 
service of the State in any of its branches. Probably this 
was why it was decided that Joachim should be educated 
for the Church. There the patronage of the Talleyrands 
would be useful to him. They were helpful from the outset. 
It was, thanks to their protection that, when he was ten years 
old he was given a bourse or scholarship at the college of 
Cahors, where he was to make his classical studies in prepara- 
tion for the seminary. 

We have no record of Joachim's schoolboy years at Cahors 
under the shadow of the cathedral, or of the holidays at La 
Bastide. We only know that he did sufficiently well to be 
sent on from the college to the archi-episcopal seminary of 
Toulouse, where the future hussar was one of a community 
of young students en soutane, busy with philosophical and 
theological studies, and having his place on Sundays and 
feasts in the surpliced choir of the cathedral. 

He had not yet taken the irrevocable step of receiving 
Orders as a sub-deacon, and was still free to choose another 
career, when his twentieth birthday was approaching. 
There was no vocation for a priestly life, but instead a longing 
for adventure and vigorous action. In February 1787 
there came a crisis of which we have no details. We only 
know that on the 23rd of the month, without consulting 
his people at La Bastide, he took a step that disappointed 



4 JOACHIM MURAT 

all their hopes and plans. He suddenly left the seminary. 
A cavalry regiment, the Chasseurs a Cheval de Champagne, ^ 
had halted that day at Toulouse, on a route march, changing 
its place of garrison from Auch to Carcassonne. To one of 
the sergeants of Captain Neil's company there came a would- 
be recruit, clean-shaved, and, so far as this went, unsoldierly 
looking, but a strong-limbed fellow five feet six and a half 
inches high, with black hair and dark eyes, a loud voice 
and a swaggering manner — Joachim Murat of La Bastide. 
Next day he marched out of Toulouse as Private Murat in 
the service of King Louis XVI, having exchanged the soutane 
for a green uniform with white facings. It was only two 
years to wait until 1789 would make all things possible, even 
for a private of Chasseurs in a provincial garrison. 

From Carcassonne the regiment was sent to Schlestadt in 
Alsace, where it was stationed when the year of the Revolu- 
tion came. By that time Joachim Murat, thanks to the 
good education he had received at Cahors and at the semin- 
ary of Toulouse, had won rapid promotion. In the two years 
since he joined the Chasseurs he had passed through the 
grades of corporal and sergeant, and was now marechal 
des logis (quarter-master-sergeant) in his regiment. In the 
summer of 1789, when all France was ringing with the news 
that the Bastille had fallen, he obtained a prolonged leave 
of absence, and, for the first time since his enlistment, 
revisited the inn of La Bastide. 

The leave of absence was lengthened out from month to 
month, for Marechal des Logis Murat had work to do at 
Cahors and elsewhere in the neighbourhood. National 
Guards were being enrolled and drilled, and the young 
soldier's services were useful to unmilitary municipals. 
He had thrown himself heart and soul into the new order of 
things, with good reason, for the privileges that kept all 
the upper rungs of the military ladder barred to such as he 
and open only to nobles and roturiers had been swept away. 
In the spring of 1790 came the summons to the Departments 
to send detachments of the new National Guard to Paris. 

^ Later known as the 12th Chasseurs a Cheval. 



FIRST YEARS 5 

The citizen soldiers were to muster in their tens of thousands 
for the Feast of the Federation of all France pledged to the 
defence of the new constitutional monarchy. King Louis 
was to swear allegiance to it at an altar erected in the 
Champ de Mars, and surrounded by the armed delegates of 
all France, on 14 July — the anniversary of the great day 
of the Bastille, 

Murat was sent to Paris by the Department of Lot, of 
which Cahors is the capital. He was in charge of the detach- 
ments of Federal National Guards from the canton of 
Montfaucon, the district round La Bastide. He was a 
unit in the great gathering of 200,000 men that was 
marshalled around the ' altar of the fatherland ' in the 
Champ de Mars. He saw King Louis take the oath to the 
Constitution, amid the plaudits of the multitude, while 
cannon roared out a salute that was echoed by batteries on 
the hilltops round Paris, and taken up by answering cannon 
from town to town till it thundered from the forts of Toulon 
by the Mediterranean, from the ramparts of Grenoble among 
the Alps, and Schlestadt in the Rhineland ; from Calais on 
the Channel, and Brest and Rochefort on the Atlantic. 
France was noisily rejoicing in the coming of the new Golden 
Age, in happy ignorance of the days of darkness that were 
so near. That loud, far-sounding salute had an immediate 
consequence, which to many seemed an evil omen. It 
brought down from cloudy skies a deluge of rain, marring 
sadly the religious ceremony, of which the central figure at 
the improvised altar was Murat's patron of his college days, 
Talleyrand de Perigord, Bishop of Autun — soon to cast 
the crozier aside and begin a new career of revolutionary 
politics and crooked diplomacy. 

Murat lingered on in Paris for months after the celebration. 
At first it was a holiday time, with much patriotic feasting 
of the Provincial Federates by their Paris friends and 
comrades. After this period of holiday-making, Murat 
seems to have stayed on in Paris for the practical reason 
that he was too short of funds to pay his way home. The 
Departmental authorities had not been prompt in remitting 



6 JOACHIM MURAT 

the allowance for expenses promised to their delegate. At 
last, with the new year of 1791, came a peremptory notice 
from the War Office that his long leave was at an end, 
and he must forthwith rejoin the Chasseurs a Cheval at 
Schlestadt. 

He wrote on 4 January, 1791 a petition to the ' Admini- 
stration of the Department of the Lot,' setting forth that, 
having been sent in the previous July to Paris with the 
' national troops of the canton of Montfaucon,' * he had been 
obliged to incur expenses that were much more considerable 
than had been anticipated, inasmuch as the stay of the 
Federate troops at Paris had been prolonged by circum- 
stances that could not have been foreseen, as is shown by 
the accompanjdng certificates from the Paris mimicipahty.' 
He reminds the officials that the Department was, by the 
decree of the National Assembly, bound to provide all neces- 
sary funds for the delegates, but he had so far received 
nothing, and Paris was an expensive place, on account of the 
great concourse of people that had been drawn thither. He 
had exhausted his private resources, and asked for a pay- 
ment on account, at the very least — all the more because he 
was under orders to proceed to Schlestadt. 

The administration remitted a hundred hvres, a dis- 
appointingly small sum, and Joachim Murat bade temporary 
farewell to Paris, and returned to garrison duty with the 
regiment in the dull frontier fortress between Vosges and 
Rhine. 

In the beginning of June there were strange movements of 
troops in the eastern districts of France, The Marquis de 
Bouille was concentrating a little army at the frontier fortress 
of Montmedy, and stringing out detachments of cavalry in 
towns and villages along the road to Paris. There was talk 
of an important convoy of treasure soon to be moved east- 
wards from the capital. A detachment of the Chasseurs a 
Cheval was ordered from Schlestadt to Montmedy as part 
of these mysterious arrangements. Murat did not go with it 

No treasure convoy came along the elaborately guarded 
Paris road, but, instead, the lumbering travelling carriage, 



FIRST YEARS 7 

conveying the fugitive royalties of France — stopped at last 
by insurgent country folk who made King Louis and Queen 
Marie Antoinette their prisoners at Varennes, while the 
locally detailed escort that should have carried them off to 
Bouille's headquarters at Montmedy slept and blundered 
or lost their way. 

When the news came to Schlestadt that the King and 
Queen had tried to escape across the frontier and had been 
conveyed back to Paris, there was anxious questioning in 
the regiment as to the fate of the detachment sent off to 
Montmedy by that royalist plotter, De Bouille, now himself 
in flight from France, and there was a patriotic eagerness to 
assure all Frenchmen that the regiment knew nothing of the 
conspiracy to steal away the King. The colonel of the 
Chasseurs, Monsieur d'Urre de Molans, aristocrat though he 
was, had decided that his lot must be thrown in with the 
new Constitutional order of things. He accepted the 
proposal that a deputation should be sent to Montmedy to 
see how the detachment there was faring, and arrange for 
their rejoining the regiment. The adjutant of the Chasseurs 
and Marechal des Logis Murat were chosen for this important 
mission. 

Murat gave an account of it in a letter to his elder brother 
Pierre, dated from Toul on 5 July, 1791. He was very 
busy, he said, and living in the midst of general excitement, 
but he snatched a moment to write to ' the best of brothers, 
whom he would always love.' He asked him to assure his 
father and mother that they need have no anxiety about him. 
He was working hard for promotion, and would soon be made 
quartermaster. 

' I have just come from Montmedy' [he continued], 'three leagues 
from Varennes, where the King was arrested. I was deputed by 
my comrade to go to Montmedy to obtain information as to the 
position of other comrades of mine who were sent there on 
detachment. Montmedy was to have received the King, and our 
regiment was to have guarded him. I saw the apartments 
prepared for him there. I send you two speeches that we 
delivered. I made one, and our adjutant the other.' 



8 JOACHIM MURAT 

These orations were meant to assure the people of Toul 
that the Chasseurs were sound ' patriots ' who had no idea 
that they were being used to protect the King's flight. He 
ended his letter with good wishes to all his relations and 
friends, and especially for the Bastit family, small proprietors 
in his native village, where the head of the family was the 
local notary. There is a special mention of Mion Bastit, 
the daughter of the house, in terms that indicate that during 
Murat's stay at La Bastide there had been some love- 
making. ' Remember me to good old Bastit,' he says, 
' and I beg you to give me news of the charming Mion. Do 
not forget this.' Then there is a quaintly worded request 
that Pierre would, on his behalf, ' embrace the municipality.' 
Pierre was a member of it, and had apparently spoken of 
resigning his position. Murat in a postscript begs him not 
to do so, and takes occasion to refer once more to his speech, 
of which he was obviously proud : — 

* Do not send in your resignation, and do not forget that 
j^our brother would die rather than cease to be a patriot, 
or be false to the sentiments of patriotism expressed in the 
speech which he had the honour to deliver in presence of 
the municipality of Toul, having been deputed bj^ his comrades 
to give them proof that we had no knowledge of the doings at 
Montmedy.' 

Here already we see signs of the boastful spirit that ran 
through so much of his after life, the Gascon spirit of swagger, 
display, and self-assertion. 

On 8 February, 1792 Murat was chosen as one of the 
mounted detachment of the new Constitutional Guard 
assigned by the Legislative Assembly to the King, nominally 
a royal guard of honour, really a precaution against a 
renewal of the attempt at evasion. The officers and soldiers 
of the Guard were nominated by the Departments to which 
thej^ belonged. Among Murat's comrades was Jean Bap- 
tiste Bessieres, another future marshal of France, but then 
a lately enhsted private in a cavcQry regiment. Bessieres 
came from Preissac in Murat's Department of the Lot, and 
was thus almost a neighbour. In a later official document 



FIRST YEARS 9 

he is spoken of as his cousin, though it is doubtful if there 
was any real relationship. 

Murat's service in the Constitutional Guard was of the 
briefest. He joined on 8 February and resigned his 
position on 4 March. The immediate occasion was a 
sentence of confinement in the salle de 'police, ordered for 
having been absent from a roll call. He preferred to leave 
the Guard rather than undergo this slight punishment. 
But he at once wrote to the Departmental Council of the 
Lot to explain that the real reason for his resignation was 
not this trifling incident, but the fact that he had found 
himself * among reactionary influences,' and had been 
directly tempted by some of his officers to leave France and 
take serivce with the army of the EmigrSs, then being 
organised at Coblenz. He said that among others the 
lieutenant-colonel of the Guard, Descours, had offered him 
forty louis d'or as bounty and travelling expenses if he 
would accept the proposal. The Departmental authorities 
passed on the complaint to the Legislative Assembly, and 
Murat's testimony was quoted by the Deputy Bazire, when 
he denounced the Guard as a hotbed of royalism, and de- 
manded and obtained its disbandment. 

Murat returned to his old regiment, now known as the 
I2th Chasseurs a Cheval, with the reputation of an in- 
corruptible patriot. He was promoted to the rank of sub- 
lieutenant on 15 October, and to that of Heutenant a 
fortnight later on the 31st. 

In November he was back in Paris again for a short time, 
making some purchases for his colonel and for the regiment. 
Since 10 August the King was a prisoner in the Temple. 
Since the early summer France had been at war with 
Austria and her allies. The country had been invaded, and 
in September Valmy had been won and the Republic 
proclaimed. A letter of Murat's from Paris to his brother 
Pierre is dated with a mixture of new and old styles, ' 19 
novembre 1792, Fan pr de la Republique.' He tells Pierre 
of his mission to the capital. Good luck has come his 
way with the advent of the Republic. ' Now that despotism 



10 JOACHIM MURAT 

has expired everything looks bright for me.' He is arranging 
with ' General ' Santerre to get a horse for his own use. 
Santerre was one of the great men of the moment. The 
brewer of the Faubourg St. Antoine had been general of the 
National Guard since the attack on the Tuileries on lo 
August. Then he writes of his hopes and prospects : — 

' I have presented a memoir to the Minister [of War] ; a 
general is to get me his repl5^ and this general is himself going 
soon to be the Minister. If this happens, my lot \vill be a very 
fortunate one. I am a lieutenant, and if my colonel is made a 
general, about ^^•hich there is no doubt, I am to be his aide-de- 
camp and a captain. At my age, and with my courage and 
military talents, I may go still further. God grant that I may 
not be disappointed in my expectations.' 

No lack of self-confidence and self-assertion here. As for 
his ' military talents,' he had had as yet no opportunity of 
displa^dng them on a more trying field than the parade 
ground. 

If Murat had already been in action there cannot be a 
doubt that in this letter home there would have been some 
allusion to the fact. He was not the man to hide even one 
ray of Hght under a bushel. It is likel}^ that so far he had 
been engaged in depot and administrative work, for which 
his previous occupation in the quartermaster's department 
of his regiment fitted him. The Chasseurs a Cheval had 
been attached to the army of the north under Dumouriez in 
Flanders, and Jemappes had been fought and won, but 
Murat does not boast of any share in his comrade's laurels, 
so it is fairly certain that he had not yet seen his first field of 
battle. 1 

WTien Murat wrote this letter to his favourite brother, 

^ M. Frederick Masson (Napoleon et sa Famille, i. 309), after mention- 
ing Murat 's promotion to lieutenant, adds that he owed this rapid advance 
to his colonel, D'Urre de Molans. who having been promoted brigadier 
general took him with him as his aide-de-camp. And he goes on to say : — 

' On pent penser que Murat avait fait la premiere campagne de I'Armee 
du Nord avec son regiment, qui, ofticieUement, a assiste au combat de 
Grandpre, au siege de Landrecies, a la bataiUe de Jemappes et au combat 
de Saint-Trond, mais on ne salt rien d'autre que son rapide avancement 
sur la part qu'il a pu prendre a ces faits de guerre.' 

Jemappes was fought on 6 November, 1792. On tlie 19th Murat was 



FIRST YEARS ii 

Pierre had been dead and buried in the churchyard of La 
Bastide for more than a month. He died on 8 October, 
leaving three children, and a widow who expected soon to 
give birth to a fourth. When he learned the news, Joachim 
undertook to provide for the education of his nephews and 
nieces, and kept his promise faithfully. ^ 

D'Urre de Molans did not get his promotion and the com- 
mand of a cavalry brigade till the beginning of the next year, 
and then chose Murat as his aide-de-camp, but the expected 
promotion to the rank of captain did not come tiU some 
months later. Between November 1792 and the middle of 
February 1793 Dumouriez had overrun Belgium, but even 
in this campaign Murat appears not to have had any ex- 
periences of active service in touch with the enemy. The 
Chasseurs were kept on the French border in Artois on garri- 
son and hne of communication duties. Events were now 
moving fast. The King was executed in January, and the 
Committee of Public Safety created the same day. A few 
days later its terrible auxiliary, the Revolutionary Tribunal, 
came into existence, and the guillotine began to work 
permanently. Nation after nation joined the coalition, 
till Europe was in arms against the Republic, and Camot, 
at the Paris War Office, called for a levy of 300,000 men 
to defend the country. 

There are extant two letters of Murat, both written from 
Paris on 25 February, 1793, showing that he was again 
employed on a mission to the Government by his chiefs. 
One of the letters is a communication to the municipality of 
La Bastide, written in the oratorical style Murat sometimes 
adopted at this period, when half France was taking theatri- 

writing this long letter home, telling of his work in Paris. Is it possible 
that if he was fresh from a victory in Flanders, he would be absolutely 
silent about it ? His war services in 1792 are clearly the outcome of 
his biographer's idea that ' he must have been there.' As we see from 
Murat's letter, D'Urre de Molans did not get his promotion to the rank 
of general tiU later, and Murat was stiU only hoping to be his aide-de-camp. 
^ The eldest son, Jean Adrien Murat (born 1785), was killed while serv- 
ing on board Admiral Dumanoir's flagship, the Formidable, in the action 
ofiE Cape Ortegal, 4 November, 1805, in which Strachan took the four 
ships that had escaped with Dumanoir from Trafalgar. The youngest 
child, Antoinette Murat, was made a princess by Napoleon, and married 
{4 February, 1808) Prince Charles of HohenzoUern-Sigmaringen. 



12 JOACHIM MURAT 

cal poses and holding forth in semi-classical language on the 
glories of the Republic and the duties of patriotism in its 
defence. It was meant to encourage the young men of 
La Bastide to hasten to the frontiers. There was an allusion 
to attempts of malicious persons to make out that he was 
an aristocrat. But he said proudly, ' I think I am well 
enough known for my zeal and patriotism to be beyond all 
doubt.' 

The other letter was to his eldest brother, Andre, the 
quiet, plodding, home-loving man, who always refused to 
leave La Bastide, and even when his brother was a king 
was content to be maire of his village. Andre had lately 
lost his wife. His brother advises him not to marry again, 
and promises to do what he can to help in supporting their 
parents. He had apparently not yet given up the idea of 
himself taking a wife from La Bastide, but had ceased to be 
keen on the old love affair, for alluding to some news con- 
veyed in a letter of Andre's he writes : — 

' You say that Mien Bastit has been annoyed with me, I am 
not surprised at it. I thought they were all against me, like the 
set of aristocrats they all are. ... I have written to Mion Bastit. 
What after all are her intentions ? I know nothing of them. 
Tell her to reply to me at once, for I expect I shall have to leave 
Paris in ten days for Holland. I have been appointed aide-de- 
camp to a general ; I have a horse that has cost me sixty louis, 
and I have to buy another. They are very dear.' 

He tells Andre that at Paris there had been some talk of 
his being elected a deputy to the Convention. * I have not 
much talent,' he says (with unusual modesty), ' but with my 
good intentions and my courage, I would do more than 
many of those who are there.' i He suggests that his 
brother should advise any of the local young men, who 
join the new levy of 300,000 to come to him at Arras, 
' at any rate they will then serve as mounted soldiers.' 
He has already had the brother of the ' Constitutional ' cure 
of La Bastide promoted as quartermaster-sergeant in his 
company. He returns to the subject of Mion Bastit, with 
an inquiry as to whether she is flirting with the young men 



FIRST YEARS 13 

at La Bastide. It is a rambling letter, hurriedly written. 
At the end there is news of the war. He had supper with 
General Dampierre at Valenciennes on the 15th, before he 
came on to Paris. The enemy is everywhere defeated. The 
camp of Famars has been taken and Toumay evacuated by 
the aUies. But Murat talks of these victories as one who 
has only heard of them. 

The letter to Mion Bastit led to nothing. A couple of 
lines in a letter to Andre, dated nearly a month later (22 
April), shows that he is angry at her neglect of him. ' Mion 
has not replied to me. Let her arrange things as she pleases. 
I laugh at it all.' The bit of romance thus flickers out of 
Murat's life, and Mion's name presently disappears from his 
correspondence. An inquiry in a letter home a few months 
later is the last reference to her. It looks like a piece of mere 
reminiscent curiosity as to what she has been doing. 
' Dites-moi ce que fait Mion Bastit.' If he had married the 
village girl he would have closed the way to a throne.^ 

Murat made only a brief stay in Paris and was soon again on 
the northern frontier, and acting as aide-de-camp to General 
d'Urre. In March Dumouriez was in fuU retreat before the 
Austrians. On the i8th they defeated him at Neerwinden. 
Custine had failed on the Rhine. A Spanish army was 
in the Pyrenees. An Enghsh army would soon be across 
the Channel to help the Austrians in the north. There was a 
semi-panic in Paris in which all the extreme elements came 
to the front. The Revolutionary Tribunal was given new 
powers. Revolutionary Committees were ordered to be 
formed in every city and town to hunt out the disloyal and 
encourage the ' patriots ' to volunteer for the defence of the 
' Fatherland in danger.' 

Dumouriez, now unsuccessful and in slow dogged retreat^ 
had long been suspected of slackness in his zeal for the 
Revolution. He had a prince on his staff, young Philippe 
Egalite, one day to reign as Louis Philippe, and he had 

^ Francois Bastit, Mion's brother, was elected to the corps legislatif, 
under the Consulate, thanks largely to Murat's influence. He was his 
life-long friend. 



14 JOACHIM MURAT 

spoken strongly of the execution of the King as a piece of 
folly. To Dumouriez's headquarters on 2 April came 
the Minister of War, Boumouville, with four delegates of 
the Convention, inviting the general to go to Paris with 
them and explain his conduct at the bar of the Assembly. 
Dumouriez knew what that meant, and promptly arrested 
the minister and the delegates, then failing to induce his 
army to stand by him, rode off to the Austrians with his 
staff, some mercenary German hussars, and his five prisoners 
as hostages. 

Dampierre,^ who had been Murat's host at the supper at 
Valenciennes in February, took the command of the beaten 
and disorganised army of the north. One of his first acts 
was to promote Murat to the rank of captain. Joachim 
sends the good news to his brother Andre in a letter dated 
from Hesdin in Artois on 22 April. It is an oratori- 
cal letter with much high-flown comparison between the 
happy condition of La Bastide and the miserable state 
of the frontier villages exposed to aU the horrors of war. 
He writes indignantly of Dumouriez. ' Our armies have 
abandoned the infamous Dumouriez, the moment they 
recognised in him a traitor, and everywhere our Repubhcan 
soldiers are giving new proofs of their courage in fighting 
against those infamous satellites of tyrants.' He acknow- 
ledges a letter of Andre's, and praises him for his civic zeal, 
and is pleased to hear that many at La Bastide are eager to 
go to the front as volunteers. But he does not encourage 
them to act on the impulse. ' I would embrace them with 
all my heart,' he says, ' if they came, but let them remain as 
they are peaceful agriculturists. Our fields have need of 
their labour, and the soldiers of the Republic look to them 
for bread. Let them therefore remain where they are and 
procure it for us.' It might have been awkward for Captain 
Murat if a Jacobin Revolutionary Committee had seen his 
letter. He tells Andre to remain at home whatever happens 

1 General Dampierre was a noble, known before the Revolution as 
Auguste Henri Picot, Marquis de Dampierre. He threw in his fortunes 
with the new regime, and adopted as his surname his old title, minus the 
aristocratic ' de.' He had distinguished himself at Valmy and Jemappes. 



FIRST YEARS 15 

and take care of the old father and mother. If the others 
will come let them ask for him at Hesdin. 

The victorious allies began a systematic reduction of the 
fortresses which the French had occupied along the border, 
and in the summer the advance of the Duke of York and the 
Enghsh to besiege Dunkirk brought the war into the neigh- 
bourhood of Murat's post at Hesdin. So far he had been 
engaged only in garrison duties, but an offer of promotion 
led him to leave his staff work and his position in the 12th 
Chasseurs for more active service with somewhat strange 
companions. 

In the warfare of irregular levies, like those of the Revolu- 
tionary armies, one finds adventurers for whom campaigning 
is little more than an opportunity of legalised brigandage. 
A man of this stamp was Jean Landrieux, who had raised 
and commanded an irregular cavalry corps known as the 
Hussards-braconniers — the ' poacher hussars.' Poaching 
being at all times an irregular warfare against aristocratic 
privileges, the name had been assumed as not now dis- 
creditable, and indicated the source from which Landrieux 
drew some of his rough recruits. So far he does not appear 
to have served against the invaders of France, but he had 
put his free corps at the service of Jacobin Committees 
engaged in hunting down ' aristocrats ' and plundering their 
possessions. Landrieux and his ' poachers ' had drifted 
into Artois in April, soon after the treason of Dumouriez, 
and there chance had brought him into communication with 
Captain Murat. The Paris War Office, not entirely satisfied 
with Landrieux's proceedings, and engaged in organising 
new armies against the Allies, was anxious to give the free 
corps a more regular form, and turn it into a serviceable 
cavalry regiment. Landrieux proposed to Murat that he 
should be transferred to his corps with a step in rank. He 
would be chef d'escadron — i.e. major of cavalry, and his 
military training and experience would be useful in the 
reorganisation of the ' poacher hussars ' into a respectable 
regiment. Murat accepted the proposal, and on i May, 
1793 Landrieux wrote to Paris praising the civic virtues and 



i6 JOACHIM MURAT '^ 

Republican zeal of his proposed chef d'escadron. The War 
Office did not send on the official promotion till September, 
but a provisional appointment was made by General Dam- 
pierre in a few days, for on 8 May Landrieux writes to 
Murat : — 

' I beg to inform you, Citizen, that in virtue of the order of 
the Minister now in my hands, and at the request of General 
Dampierre, you have been named provisionally second chef 
d'escadron of the regiment which I command. Will you there- 
fore be so good as to inform the general to whose staff you are 
attached of this arrangement, so that he may send you to your 
post as soon as possible. Let me know of his decision.' 

The hussards-hraconnicrs were now renamed the i6th 
Chasseurs a Cheval. Later on their number was changed 
to the 2ist. Murat's definite commission as chef d'escadron 
in the 21st Chasseurs is dated the 23rd of the following 
September. 

By this time he had served for some months \vith Lan- 
drieux's regiment which was stationed at Hesdin. He had 
no idea of being a part3' to any irregularities, and took his 
work seriously, exerting himself, on the contrary, to bring 
the ex-' poachers ' into a state of military discipline and 
train them into a useful cavalry unit. The result was a 
conflict \\ith his commanding officer. 

He saw his first active service in skirmishes with the enemy 
at the head of these transformed irregulars. In January 
1794 he writes home from Lille that during the last three 
daj^ they have been in action and * fighting like devils ' 
on the outpost line where they had served for months. 
They had just been withdrawn to LiUe. They were all in 
rags, and expected soon to be ordered to Dunkirk. Inciden- 
tall}^ he mentions that during the rough campaigning of the 
winter he had lost three horses, and had been put to much 
expense to replace them. But he is anxious to help the old 
home, and promises to send his parents a hundred francs 
each month. There are complaints of the trouble and 
anxiety he has to suffer through the attacks of ' intriguing 
and ambitious men.' 



FIRST YEARS 17 

The allusion was, no doubt, to Landrieux and his supporters 
in the regiment. In February he writes from Dunkirk 
asking urgently for a copy of his baptismal certificate in 
order to prove that he is sprung from the common people. 
' They want to make out that I am a noble,' he says, ' and 
this puts me in a rage.' He mentions that the regiment will 
soon go to Holland. There is also talk of an embarkation. 
Perhaps there will be an invasion of England. 

While Murat was doing outpost work with the 2nd and 
3rd squadrons of the 21st Chasseurs, Landrieux with the 
1st squadron had kept away from the front and employed 
himself in police duty making searches, seizures, and arrests 
at Boulogne, Abbeville, and other northern towns. When he 
rejoined, Murat showed what he thought of his methods, 
asserted himself as the effective commander of the regiment, 
if any real service was to be done, and refused to countenance 
Landrieux's attempts to continue his legalised plundering. 
It was then war to the knife between the two men. As the 
readiest weapon, Landrieux tried to show that Murat was 
not a good Republican. He had been the protege of D'Urre 
de Molans, an aristocrat, nay, he was himself an aristocrat 
connected with the Murats of Auvergne. He denied the 
dangerous relationship, and the papers sent from La Bastide 
showed he was a son of the people. Landrieux and 
Murat exchanged mutual recriminations, each charging the 
other with being a secret agent of the Bourbon princes. 
Landrieux declared that his chef d'escadron was an agitator 
who was destroying the discipline of the regiment. But 
Murat, thanks to his hard work and his dashing conduct at 
the outposts, had on his side all the officers who meant 
business, and he sent to the War Office a statement signed 
by himself and nearly aU his colleagues accusing Landrieux, 
with perfect truth, of being continually absent from the 
theatre of war and engaged in expeditions for his own profit. 
To show his own thorough devotion to the Republic he signed 
his name not as Murat but as ' Marat.' The result was that 
Landrieux was removed from the command, and for the 
moment Murat, alias Marat, was victorious. 



i8 JOACHIM MURAT 

But Jul}' brought the days of Thermidor and the swift 
downfall of Robespierre and the Terrorists, and the reaction 
in which all who had too closely identified themselves with 
the fallen men were in deadly danger. Landrieux tried to 
take vengeance on his old opponent, and that unfortunate 
episode of his having masqueraded as ' Marat ' helped him 
to trump up against Murat an accusation that he had been 
one of the ' Robespierrists.' He was arrested and sent to 
prison at Amiens, and was put on his trial for complicity in 
the Terror. 

' The defence that Murat made before the Committee of Public 
Safety was skilful and energetic. He reminded liis judges that 
the same man who had denounced him as an aristocrat was now 
his accuser on the charge of " terrorism." " It well befitted 
Landrieux, that immoral man, who had never Hved but by 
intrigues and plunder," he said, '' thus to attack one who had 
always walked in the straight path of virtue, who had never 
been absent from his post, and who had had a horse killed under 
him in the last campaign." If for a fortnight he had assumed 
the name of Marat it was only to elude the tjTanny of his 
persecutors. If he was to be condemned for having tried " to 
avoid persecution by tliis very innocent means, they ought to 
punish the entire section of Paris that had adopted the name of 
Marat." Had he not refiised to act as president of a military' 
commission that had sent to the guillotine an ofiicer of the 
regiment, Chenel, whose loss all his comrades deplored ? ' ^ 

He produced a strong testimonial in his favour from the 
authorities of his native Department of the Lot. He was 
acquitted and sent back to his regiment. He had hoped to 
have command of it, but he had to remain for awhile only 
one of its squadron leaders.- 

But his chance was coming. The regiment had been 

^ Chavanon de St. Yves, Joachim Murat, p. ii. 

- Landrieux, though he had been worsted in his conflict with Murat, 
remained in the army of the Repubhc, and obtained promotion. In 
the first stage of the campaign of Italy, in 1796, we find him in command 
of one of Kilmaine's cavalry regiments, and closely associated with that 
general. He was then employed by Bonaparte in secret service work, 
and helped to organize Repubhcan and anti-Austrian revolutions, in 
various cities in northern Italy. During these proceedings, he met his 
old nval Murat again. Landneux says they met as friends, and that he 



FIRST YEARS 19 

ordered to Paris while he was still under arrest, and it was 
there he rejoined it. Next year came the last struggles of 
the party of insurrection. On 20 May, 1795 — the day of 
Prairal — the Jacobins and Sansculottes invaded the As- 
sembly, and it was the chef d'escadron Murat who came to 
the rescue of the authorities with the first party of cavalry 
that put itself at their disposal in defence of order. Then 
came the Constitution of the Directory, and the Federation 
of the National Guard of the Sections of Paris to overthrow 
the * reactionary government.' Barras was appointed 
commander-in-chief of the troops that had been concentrated 
to protect the Government, and the civilian politician, 
looking round for a soldier to do the real work as his lieuten- 
ant, chose young Napoleon Bonaparte for the post. The 
famous 13 of Vendemiaire (5 October, 1795) saw the last 
of the insurrections in Paris and the rise of Bonaparte's star 
amid the smoke cloud of the cannon that swept the streets 
and quays round the Tuileries and the church of St. Roch. 

That many of these guns were at Bonaparte's orders, and 
that there was no artillery replying to them, was due to a 
piece of swift and efficient service done by Joachim Murat. 
On the eve of the great day, though still only ranking as 
chef d'escadron, he was in temporary command of the 21st 
Chasseurs. This was his first piece of good fortune. At 
midnight he had under his immediate orders 260 men ; 
the rest were on detached duty at various points. Bona- 
parte had just been informed that the artillery of the 
National Guard was parked at the Place des Sablons under 
the guard of a handful of men, twenty-five at most. Murat's 
men were the nearest available mounted force. He was told 
to secure the forty guns. Off he went through the darkness 
at a brisk gallop and trot to the Sablons. As he entered the 

even offered to lend Murat money, but he was told by the latter, that he 
had all he needed. Landrieux admits in his memoirs that in levying 
contributions he found the means of having considerable sums offered 
to him for his own use, and suggests that Murat and the other RepubUcan 
generals in Italy found similar ways of ' making economies.' He fell 
into Bonaparte's disfavour, left the army, and settled in France, where, 
during the Empire, Napoleon's police watched him as a suspicious 
character. 



20 JOACHIM MURAT 

open space he saw on the other side of it a battalion of 
National Guards in column marching into the square. It 
was the battalion of the Section La Pelletier arriving to secure 
the artillery. Murat formed his horsemen in line, and 
advancing mth sabre dra\\Ti told the Nationals that if they 
did not at once face about and march away he would charge 
them and cut them to pieces. The citizen soldiers retreated 
before the menace of the Chasseurs. Horses were requisi- 
tioned and the guns and tumbrils were soon rumbling to the 
Tuileries under Murat's escort. 

The bloodless \dctory in the darkness of the Place des 
Sablons had made Murat's fortune. General Bonaparte 
was not likely to forget the man who had armed him for the 
victory in the streets of Paris that was the starting-point of 
his career of conquest and empire. The colonelcy of his 
regiment was the immediate reward of Murat's prompt 
action. A mere chance had started him at last upon his 
career of success. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 21 



CHAPTER II 

THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 
1796-1798 

WHILE he was still serving in the north of France 
Murat had written to La Bastide that, when the 
war was over, he would return home and, Uke a 
new Cincinnatus, put his hands to the plough and help to 
cultivate the family lands. The message was probably only 
one of those bits of pseudo-classic affectation of Republican 
simplicity common at the time. He was a soldier before 
everything else, and he said that if ' God and the bullets 
spared him he would go far.' Before the end of 1794 he had 
sold to his brother Andre his interest in the family property 
at La Bastide. His promotion to the rank of colonel, and 
his admission to the group of brilliant officers who were the 
satellites of the rising general of France would have fixed him 
in the career of arms, even if he had ever had any serious 
thought of abandoning it. 

He had a new proof of Bonaparte's favour in his promotion 
to the rank of chef de brigade on 2 February, 1796.1 In 

1 General Thoumas {Les Grands Cavaliers, i. 388) tells this story of 
Murat's appointment : ' The 21st Chasseurs were in garrison at Ver- 
sailles, and by the orders of Bonaparte, now general of division, and 
commander-in-chief of the Army of the Interior, the regiment every ten 
days exchanged quarters with one of the regiments in barracks at the 
Ecole Militaire. Murat during these periods of service in Paris came 
into close touch with the aides-de-camp of the commander-in-chief, 
Junot and Marmont, and told these two officers of his desire to go to the 
front with them. Encouraged by them, he went to see the commander-in- 
chief, and with the somewhat presumptuous confidence that was charac- 
teristic of him, said to Bonaparte, ' You have not an aide-de-camp of 
the rank of colonel, and I propose to you that I should go with you in 
this capacity.' This assured self-confidence did not displease Bonaparte. 
He had Murat appointed to be his first aide-de-camp, and took him with 
him. 



22 JOACHIM MURAT 

this position he would still be knoNMi as Colonel Murat, 
and in the ordinary course of events might look fonvard to 
commanding a cavcilry brigade and winning his promotion 
to the rank of general in the next campaign. But there 
was something better in store for him. When Bonaparte 
started for Provence to take command of the army of Italy 
for the campaign of 1796 he appointed Murat to his staff, 
and during the campaign he again and again gave him the 
command of large bodies of troops, or sent him to superintend 
and report upon operations directed by others, or to conduct 
important negotiations. He was given abimdant oppor- 
tunities of distinction, ^md he made the most of them. 

The ragged, almost shoeless, army was concentrated on 
the French Ri\-iera. The Austrians and Sardinians held the 
passes that led over the northern Apennines. In a marvel- 
lous campaign of two weeks Bonaparte had forced the passes, 
separated the Sardinians from their allies, thoroughly 
beaten them, and forced the King of Sardinia to renounce 
the alliance and accept the terms of peace dictated by the 
victor. At Dego Murat led his first charge in a pitched 
battle. Bonaparte had hurried up during the action ^^ith 
a handful of reinforcements, among them two squadrons of 
dragoons. He sent Murat to them with an order to charge, 
and the staff officer led the \nld dash into the Austrian ranks 
with such good eftect that he was mentioned \\-ith honour 
in the victor's dispatch to the Directory. At Mondovi, in 
the final battle with General ColU's Piedmontese, Murat 
rallied a broken brigade of cavalry, led them again to the 
charge, and drove the beaten enemy across the river Ellero, 
fording the stream to charge them again on the further 
bank. Already he showed that faculty of inspiring others 
with his o\\n reckless daring, that almost magnetic power 
of imparting for the moment his own spirit to himdreds or 
thousands, which is one of the secrets of the great leader. 

When, after Mondo\i, Colli asked for an armistice, it was 
Murat who was sent to the enemy's headquarters as the 
bearer of Bonaparte's terms. As soon as the armisrice was 
signed he was sent to Paris with Bonaparte's dispatches 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 23 

announcing the event. On 10 May, 1796 he was rewarded 
by the Directory with promotion to the rank of General de 
Brigade. A general at twenty-eight he could hope for 
anything. 

During the few days he spent in Paris Murat paid more 
than one visit to Madame Bonaparte. He had been formally 
presented to her after Vendemiaire, but now, when he came 
as the bearer of news from her husband's headquarters in 
the field, there was occasion for conversations in which were 
laid the foundations of a friendship that was soon to be of 
material service to the young cavalry general. 

While he was in Paris Bonaparte had stormed the bridge 
of Lodi, occupied Milan, and driven the Austrians out of 
Lombardy. When Murat rejoined the army towards the 
end of May it was advancing to attack the line of the river 
Mincio, south of the Lake of Garda. The eastern bank was 
held by Beaulieu's Austrian army, guarding every point 
along the stream, and therefore nowhere strong, and every- 
where weak, against the concentrated attack of their 
opponents. 

Murat was just in time. He was given the general direc- 
tion of the advanced guard when, on 30 May, Bonaparte 
forced the crossing of the Mincio at Valeggio. The French, 
striking at the chosen point of the long Austrian cordon, were 
able to bring some twenty thousand men into action against 
three thousand Austrian cavalry and four thousand infantry. 
Murat charged the Austrian cavalry and completely routed 
them. He had taken temporary command of Kilmaine's 
cavalry division, and thus reaped the chief honours of the 
day. The charge cut off the retreat of a large body of 
Austrians. Murat took nine guns, two standards, and some 
two thousand prisoners. He was specially mentioned in 
Bonaparte's report to the Directory, not only as the leader 
of the victorious cavalry attack, but also for personal acts 
of valour in the charge, and for having rescued a number of 
chasseurs who were in imminent danger of being made 
prisoners by the enemy. 

Beaulieu retired northwards towards the Tyrol and Bona.- 



24 JOACHIM MURAT 

parte began the siege of Mantua, where a strong garrison 
held out among the marshes and inundations that isolated 
the fortress. While the blockade of the place dragged on 
the French commander was strengthening his hold on Italy. 
In June he sent Murat to Genoa with a letter to the French 
envoy to the Genoese Republic, Citizen Faypoult, in which 
he directed him to warn the Senate that there must be no 
secret trafficking with Austria, and that there must be an 
end of the attacks made upon French soldiers on the borders 
of the Genoese territory. ' I will bum any town or viUage 
where a Frenchman is assassinated,' wrote Bonaparte ; 
' I will bum any house that gives shelter to the assassins.' 
The remonstrances of the envoy, backed by the presence of 
the hero of Valeggio, reduced the Senate to a state of alarm 
that was manifested in abject apologies. 

Murat returned from his mission in the third week of June, 
and by an order, dated the 20th of that month, he was given 
the command of the vanguard of a force detached to occupy 
Tuscany, under General Vaubois. Murat's advanced guard 
was made up of a cavalry brigade (ist Hussars and 20th 
Dragoons) imder the younger Kellerman, and a battalion 
of Grenadiers under Colonel Lannes, the future marshal. 
By a forced march and a sudden change of direction Murat 
surprised Leghorn, and seized an enormous quantity of 
supplies in the warehouses of the port, but the English 
merchant ships in the harbour succeeded in getting away to 
sea at the last moment. 

Returning to headquarters on the Mincio in the beginning 
of July Murat was placed under the orders of Serurier, who 
was commanding the besieging force before Mantua. On 
16 July an attempt was made to surprise the entrenched 
camp that formed a huge outwork of the fortress. Murat's 
part in the operation was the leadership of a column that 
was embarked in boats to make its wa}^ through the marshes 
in the night. A sudden fall in the waters of the Po half- 
drained the marshes and left Murat's boats aground among 
the reeds. Marmont's memoirs followed b}^ some of Murat's 
biographers, accuse him of having caused the failure of the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 25 

attack by slackness in bringing up his detachment. But 
Serurier's report amply justifies him. He could not do the 
impossible. But two days later in a successful attack on 
the outworks Murat showed that he could lead infantry as 
well as cavalry, and at the head of a column of 1000 
grenadiers he fought his way at the bayonet's point into 
the entrenchments held by General Rukavina's Austrian 
brigade. 

Hard work by day and night among the Mantuan swamps 
had, however, affected even his iron strength. He was 
attacked by a malarial fever and had to go into hospital at 
Brescia. He arrived there on 26 July. The city was held 
by only three companies of French infantry. Suddenly 
the veteran general Wurmser, who had taken over the 
command of the Austrian army, concentrated in the Tyrol 
for the relief of Mantua, sent two strong columns pouring 
down into northern Italy. Wurmser led the main force on 
the left. Quosdanovich, on the right, marched to the 
westward of Lake Garda, and surprised Brescia on 30 July. 
Murat was made prisoner, but a few days later we find him 
a free man at Verona. Thence, on 8 August, he wrote to 
Camot, the Minister of War : — 

' A burning fever had forced me to leave the army in order to 
restore my health. I had been four days at Brescia when the 
place was surprised by the enemy, who made me a prisoner of 
war. It is the first great misfortune I have experienced in my 
life. I have been unable to share the dangers of my comrades 
in arms during these glorious days. You will understand how 
much I regret it. But, notwithstanding my pledged word, I 
have not left the commander-in-chief, the brave Bonaparte.' 

' Notwithstanding my pledged word — mature ma parole 
donnee ' — the expression suggests that Murat had regained 
his freedom by breaking a parole given to the Austrians, 
who, doubtless, thought they had to deal with an invalided 
officer, who would have no eager desire to be in the saddle 
again. But Murat had few scruples (though before the 
Committee of Public Safety he had boasted of never having 
departed from the ' straight path of virtue '), and he had an 



26 JOACHIM MURAT 

iron constitution that quickly shook off the fever. Two 
days after he wrote to Camot he was hard at work again. 

The * glorious days ' he had missed while he was ill and a 
prisoner were those in which, within a week, Bonaparte had 
inflicted blow after blow on the enemy. He had temporarily 
raised the siege of Mantua, concentrated his forces and fallen 
on Quosdanovich and the Austrian right divided from 
Wurmser by the Lake of Garda, retaken Brescia, defeated 
Quosdanovich at Lonato and Desenzano, and driven him 
back into the Alps. Meanwhile Wurmser had got into touch 
with Mantua and crossed the Mincio. Bonaparte turned 
back upon him, beat him at Castighone and drove him over 
the river and back into the Tyrol. By the end of the week 
Mantua was again blockaded. No wonder Murat dreamed 
regretfully of what he might have done in this swift succes- l 
sion of victories. 

On 10 August he was reconnoitring with a cavalry 
column north of Brescia. In the following week he was at 
the head of a flying column — one hundred horsemen, two guns, 
and a battalion of infantry — disarming the district of Casal 
Maggiore, which had risen in insurrection when the Austrians 
advanced. A fine of a million of francs was levied on the 
district. The leaders of the rising were tried by court 
martial and shot. The church bells that had rung the tocsin 
were taken from the campanili and sent to Alessandria to 
be cast into field-pieces. 

In the first days of September Murat was in temporary 
command of the fortress of Verona, where he forced the 
Venetian authorities to hand over to him all the supplies 
in their magazines. Both parties were freely violating the 
neutrality of the Venetian territories, and the Republic, 
now in its last days of helpless decrepitude, was soon to 
come to an inglorious end. On the evening of 3 September 
Murat, having handed over the garrison command at Verona 
to General Kilmaine, hurried off to join the army under 
Massena that was marching into the Tyrol. 

On the 5th Massena occupied Trent, and Murat was en- 
gaged in the pursuit of VVurmser's rearguard to the eastward. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 27 

The Austrians made a stand at the village of Lavis on the 
river Avisio. The infantry stormed the bridge while Murat 
led the loth Chasseurs through the river by a ford, each 
horseman carrying across an infantryman behind him on 
his horse. Wurmser, after abandoning Trent, had doubled 
back by the Brenta valley, marching once more to the relief 
of Mantua. Massena pressed after him, and Bonaparte 
headed him off, Dubois, who commanded Massena's cavalry, 
was killed at the battle of Roveredo in the gorges of the upper 
Brenta. Murat took his place ; and on 8 September, when 
Wurmser was defeated at Bassano, led one of the decisive 
charges of the day. The Austrian general succeeded in 
reaching Mantua with the debris of his army. The blockade 
had been partly raised during Wurmser's dash through the 
Venetian territory. As the French closed in upon the place 
again, there was some skirmishing with the Austrians, and 
in an action at San Giorgio, on 15 September, Murat, 
while leading a successful charge, was slightly wounded — the 
first wound he received in action. 

Having for the second time defeated an attempt to relieve 
Mantua and reformed the blockade, Bonaparte proceeded to 
reorganise his army. The cavalry was formed into two strong 
brigades under the supreme command of General Kilmaine. 
General Beaumont was given the first brigade, which was 
attached to the force before Mantua, General Murat was given 
the second, * destined for the active operations of the army.' 

The earlier biographers of Murat speak of the months 
that followed as a time when he had almost fallen ' into 
disgrace ' with Bonaparte. They build up various theories 
to account for this state of things, some of them having 
recourse to the ready explanation that Bonaparte had 
heard rumours of his aide-de-camp having tried to be more 
than friendly with Josephine during the hurried visit to 
Paris after the armistice with Sardinia, and was anxious to 
keep him at a distance now that the lady had come to 
northern Italy. The whole supposition is quite gratuitous. 
The theories of Murat's ' disgrace ' are partly the result of 
exaggerations as to his relations with Bonaparte since 



28 JOACHIM MURAT 

Vendemiaire and in the first stages of the campaign of Italy. 
Murat was one of many brilliant and ambitious officers whom 
Bonaparte had gathered round him and used freely for his 
o-wTi purposes. He had not yet been admitted to the 
inmost circle, and consequently there was no sign of ill will 
or suspicion on Bonaparte's side if he kept the young 
brigadier-general employed for a whUe in ordinary work, 
and did not push him forward by exceptional promotions 
over the heads of older men. It is, however, quite possible 
that Murat was disappointed at being placed under Kil- 
maine's orders, and after the rapid rush of promotion that 
had fallen to his lot was impatient at not having the rank of 
general of division immediately offered to him. But he 
had risen fast enough to satisfy any ordinary ambition, and 
the subordination to Kilmaine was more nominal than real. 
The older general was almost immediately given the direc- 
tion of the blockade of Mantua, and directly commanded 
General Beaumont's cavalry attached to the besieging force. 
Murat, with the second brigade, was either acting inde- 
pendently or attached for the time being to headquarters 
or to one of the generals commanding a considerable force 
of all arms. He had nothing to complain of. 

A little later we find him in correspondence with the 
Director Barras, whom he had seen several times during his 
last visit to Paris. In one of these letters (ig Frimaire, an V, 
December g, 1796), he grumbles a Uttle, and harks back to 
his old revolutionary style, perhaps in the hope of thereby 
assuring Barras of his sound Republicanism, and so gaining 
his interest for a request he had made to be employed for a 
while in the capital. He had suggested that he might be 
given the command of the Guard assigned to the Directory. 
This would enable him to push his fortunes \vith the ruling 
powers in Paris, and prepare the way for independent com- 
mand in the field. He had not foresight enough to recognise 
that Bonaparte, not Barras, was the man of the future. 

' Things are going well here,' he wTote, ' but I can hardly 
beheve that the Directory is not mistaken as to the principles 
of a number of persons whom the War Minister employs with 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 29 

the army. Here the talk is all of Monsieur de and the 

Baron de and the Comte de , and this in circles fre- 
quented by officers of high rank. Je me donne d tons les diables.' 

It is not easy to find an English equivalent for the last 
phrase. Murat swears like a trooper at the whole business 
to express his disgust for such aristocratic ways of talking. 
The supporters of the ' disgrace ' theory imagine that Bona- 
parte knew of this correspondence. There is no reason to 
suppose he did. Two years later when, with Murat's 
zealous assistance, he had turned on Barras, the ex-Director 
thought these pro-Republican letters had been written by 
Murat in order to mislead him and make a fool of him, with 
Bonaparte's consent and knowledge. This also is a baseless 
theory. Murat was simply playing his own game, and long 
before the next two years were over knew that Bonaparte, 
not Barras, was the man who would be useful to him. 

At the end of September his cavalry brigade was attached 
to Massena's corps, which was holding the western portion 
of the Venetian territory in order to cover the investment of 
Mantua against an Austrian advance in that direction. 
He joined Massena's headquarters at Bassano. There were 
no great events till November, when Alvinzi came down 
from the Alps with a third Austrian army to attempt the 
relief of Mantua, while another army, under Davidovich, 
reoccupied Trent and advanced by the Lake of Garda. 
Napoleon drew in his outlying detachments, defeated Alvinzi 
at Areola before the Trent column was in touch with him, 
and then drove Davidovich back into the Tyrol. The writers 
who hold that all this time Bonaparte was keeping Murat at 
arm's length, and that the young general was under a cloud 
of semi-disgrace, point out that nothing is heard of him 
during the November campaign, but the recent publication 
of the Murat papers gives us at least one document to show 
once more how misleading the negative argument can be in 
historical matters. For on 24 November we find Bona- 
parte not only writing directly to Murat but also inviting 
him to come to his headquarters before Mantua. ' Go to 
Porto Legnago,' writes Bonaparte, ' and reconnoitre the 



30 JOACHIM MURAT 

force and position of the enemy on the roads to Lonigo, 
Colonia, and Padua. After this you will join me during the 
night at Rombello, where I shall be on my way to inspect the 
blockade of Mantua.' 

In December Murat was attached with liis brigade to 
Augereau's corps. In January 1797, when the Austrians, 
under Alvinzi and Bajalich, made their fourth and last un- 
successful attempt to relieve Mantua, Murat was employed 
in a delicate and important operation planned by Bonaparte 
himself. Till the publication of the Murat papers it was 
thought that this bold stroke was due entirely to his own 
initiative, but a long letter from Bonaparte to Murat, dated 
13 January, describes the plan of operations in detail, 
and incidentally shows how thoroughly his commander-in- 
chief relied upon him to deal with a main feature of his 
general scheme for crushing Alvinzi. 

The main Austrian army was coming down from the Alps 
by the road that follows the Val Lagarina, a few miles east 
of the shore of Garda, and roughly parallel to it. Joubert 
held the snow and ice-covered plateau of Rivoli commanding 
the narrow outlet of the valley from the hill country. On 
13 January Alvinzi was beginning to press him hard, and 
Bonaparte was hurr3dng to his aid with Massena and Rey's 
corps. Murat had been attached to Rey's corps, but was 
then commanding a small detached force of cavalry and 
infantry with two guns, watching the western side of the 
lake near Salo. Bonaparte sent him, on the 13th, a detailed 
order for a bold stroke against the Austrian flank and rear, 
an enterprise which could only be entrusted to a man of 
reckless courage. The French had collected all the boats on 
the lake at its southern end, and had armed some of them 
as gunboats at Peschiera. Bonaparte directs Murat 
immediately, on receipt of his letter, to send some one to 
make sure that there was no important Austrian force 
within striking distance west of the lake. He teUs him he 
does not think that there is any. This being verified, he is 
to send all his cavalry to make a forced march round the 
south end of the lake to join the main army. Three hours 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 31 

after midnight he is to embark his two guns and all his 
infantry in a flotilla of boats, which is placed at his disposal. 
He is to cross the lake in the darkness, and at dawn dis- 
embark at some point north of Torre on the eastern shore, 
march into the hills and take up a position in the Austrian 
rear. The gunboats from Peschiera will go out and help him 
by threatening various points on the east shore, so as to 
mislead the enemy. A hundred pioneers will be sent in 
boats to join him, and will take with them a hundred extra 
tools, so that Murat, ' after working round the enemy and 
cannonading his flank, can entrench himself.' Bonaparte 
expresses the hope that he will secure plenty of prisoners. 
He tells him that one of his battalions, the carbineers of the 
nth demi-brigade, know the ground, from earlier experience 
during the war. If by any mishap he fails to land in the 
enemy's rear, he is to try to land lower down the lake and 
join the left of the main French attack. 

Bonaparte had rightly chosen his man. Murat crossed 
the lake in the night, boldly threw himself into the hills 
north of the Austrian attack, and after seriously alarming 
the enemy by opening with his two guns from this unex- 
pected quarter, cut off the retreat of some thousands of men 
and made them prisoners as the Austrians gave way before 
Massena's furious onset from the south. Bonaparte, in his 
report, paid a high tribute to the brilliant service that Murat 
had done him. 

After the battle of Rivoli Murat returned to Salo. On 
26 January he was placed under Joubert's orders, and 
directed to co-operate with him in an advance into the 
Tyrol to reoccupy Trent. On the 27th he embarked an 
infantry brigade and some hght artillery on the lake and 
landed them at Torbola near its head. Thence, while 
Joubert advanced by the main road to Trent, Murat followed 
a bad mountain road up the valley of the Sarca from the 
head of the Lake of Garda by Arco and Vezzano, this 
movement enabling him to come down on the right rear of 
the Austrian force covering Trent against Joubert's advance 
on the main road. The Austrian defence collapsed. Joubert 



32 JOACHIM MURAT 

and Murat marched into Trent, and then took up a position 
to protect it against any attempt of the enemy to recover 
the place. 

On 3 February Mantua had at last surrendered. Bona- 
parte had now all his army at liberty for active operations, 
and received reinforcements through the Alpine passes from 
Moreau's army in Germany. He was going to abandon 
the defensive and march on Vienna through the Venetian 
territory and the eastern Alps. When all was ready he 
summoned Murat from Trent to act with his advanced guard 
in the coming campaign. He joined the main army on 
12 March at Castelfranco on the Brenta, bringing with him 
two regiments of cavalry and two guns, and was attached to 
Bemadotte's division, which led the advance of the main 
column under Massena. 

The best of the Austrian generals, the Archduke Charles, 
was opposed to Bonaparte. He tried in vain to bar his 
advance at the crossings of the Venetian rivers. The line 
of the Piave was forced on the 14th ; the Tagliamento on 
the i6th : and the Isonzo on the i8th — three victories in a 
week ; and on each occasion Murat took his full share in the 
fighting, being specially mentioned by Bonaparte for his 
conduct at the passage of the Isonzo. Bemadotte and 
Murat were not engaged in the fighting during the advance 
into the Carinthian Alps. Early in April the Archduke's 
army was reduced to the utmost extremity, and Austria 
was suing for peace. 

During the negotiations Bonaparte, after sending a column 
to occupy Venice, established his headquarters at the chateau 
of Mombello near Milan, where Murat was with him for 
a while, and where, for the first time, he saw his future wife, 
CaroUne Bonaparte. The victorious general was holding 
something not unlike a royal court at Mombello. The 
courtiers were a crowd of generals and staff officers, French, 
German, and Austrian diplomatists, envoys from the cities 
of Italy, and as an inner circle the Bonaparte family — 
Napoleon's mother, plain-spoken Madame Letizia, marvel- 
ling at the greatness of her son, his brother Joseph affecting 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 33 

the airs of a statesman and soon to be ambassador at Rome ; 
Captain Louis Bonaparte recovering from an illness and in- 
clined to talk poetry ; little Jerome Bonaparte, having a 
holiday from his Paris school with his school-fellow Eugene 
Beauhamais, the future Viceroy of Italy ; the three sisters, 
Elisa, lately married to the Corsican Major Bacciochi, a 
bad match which the family regretted ; Pauline, engaged 
to General Leclerc, and Caroline, still free and using her 
freedom in a series of reckless flirtations. Josephine was a 
graceful hostess, already taking the airs of a queen. 

There was a succession of banquets and fetes. Murat 
made his appearance at some of them. His stay at Mom- 
bello was never prolonged. He was officially still attached 
to Bemadotte's division which was stationed in Udine in the 
Venetian territory. But he had liberal leave of absence and 
spent most of it at Brescia, the place where he had had the 
misfortune of falling into the hands of the Austrians the 
year before. A letter of Bonaparte's, addressed to him in 
Jime, throws light on the attraction that kept him at Brescia, 
and also indicates a previous correspondence in which the 
commander-in-chief had suggested that there was work for 
him to do in Udine, and Murat had replied by asking if his 
chief had conceived an unfavourable opinion of him, ap- 
parently because there had been a hint that he was wasting 
his time. Bonaparte rephes that he knows how to value 
Murat's ' military talents, courage and zeal, and has no idea 
that can be in the least degree unfavourable to him,' but he 
adds, ' I thought you would be more useful with your division 
than with your mistress at Brescia.' It was a reproof, not 
dictated b}^ any moral considerations, of which Bonaparte 
then and later thought very little, but from the military 
commander's point of view. Bonaparte, even in the later 
days when he was Napoleon, had often to regret that this 
selfish weakness of his great cavalry leader resulted in neglect 
of duty. * How many blunders Murat has committed,' he 
once exclaimed, ' through his way of looking for his head- 
quarters in some chateau where he could meet women.' 
Desaix, in his journal of the campaign of 1797, noted that 
c 



34 JOACHIM MURAT 

the attraction for Murat at Brescia was a certain Madame 
Ruga, the wife of a local lawyer. Other gossip pointed 
to the Countess Gerardi, a sister of the Itahan general 
Lechi, said to have been then the most beautiful woman in 
Lombardy. 

A letter of introduction given to him by Josephine shows 
that Murat was at Mombello in the beginning of August and 
then made a flying visit to Rome. He can only have been 
there a few days, for at the beginning of September Bona- 
parte entrusted him with a military mission in Switzerland. 
The people of the Val Tellina, in the south of the canton of 
Grisons, had revolted and demanded the incorporation of 
their territory in the newly created Cisalpine Republic. 
There was a state of civil war in the valley, and the authori- 
ties of the Grisons had sent an envoy to Bonaparte at Milan 
asking him to act as arbitrator in the dispute, and mean- 
while restore order in the Val Tellina. On 9 September 
Bonaparte issued a warning to both parties to desist from 
all hostilities, directing them to send deputies to state their 
case at Milan, and adding that in order to restore peace in 
the vaUey he was sending over the frontier a column of troops 
under General Murat. All disturbers of order would be 
arrested and severely punished. Murat moved up to Edolo 
on the borders of the Val Tellina, with a mixed force of cavalry 
and infantry. He kept strictly to his mission of preserving 
order, and refused to hear anything of the dispute between 
the rival parties. That had been referred to Bonaparte, 
who, early in October, settled it by annexing the Val Tellina 
to the Cisalpine Republic. 

On the eve of his advance to Edolo Murat had found time 
for one more visit to Brescia. There is a letter to his brother, 
dated from that place on 18 September, and signed ' J. 
Murat, le General commandant une colonne mobile marchant 
en Valteline.' He complains bitterly of not having heard 
from him for months, and suggests that the news of his own 
exploits might have drawn a letter from home : — 

' Six months have gone by. Your brother has faced the 
greatest dangers ; he has been wounded ; the public papers 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 35 

have eulogized him ; and you remain silent and unaffected alike 
by my glory and by the perils that may deprive my relatives of 
me. Let me tell you that I have reason to be annoyed with 
you, but I will pardon you everything if you still love your 
brother and if you are worthy of him.' 

What a piece of characteristic self-sufficient vanity ! He 
goes on to say that he hopes the coming peace will enable 
him to return home. He has just come from Rome, and is 
about to start on another expedition. 

That expedition, the police duty in the Val Tellina, 
ended on 4 October. He had then withdrawn his brigade 
to Brescia and sent in his report to the commander-in-chief. 
Bonaparte acknowledges it in a brief note in which he says : 
' I am satisfied with what you have done in the Val Tellina.' 
On the same day (4 October) Berthier, the chief of the staff, 
sends him an order to leave Brescia and take command at 
Treviso of the 3rd Brigade of the ist Cavalry Division 
(19th Chasseurs and 5th Dragoons). 

The Treaty of Campo Formio was signed on 17 October, 
certain points being reserved for settlement by a congress of 
diplomatists to be held at Rastatt in the Rhineland, where 
Napoleon was to be present. His progress to the congress 
and his reception there were a triumph. ' On 17 Novem- 
ber,' says Dr. Max Lenz,i ' he began his journey to the Rhine. 
Wherever he appeared in Savoy, in Switzerland, he was 
received with public demonstrations ; he turned his atten- 
tion to setting affairs in order, and negotiated and intrigued 
with rival parties that vied with each other in bringing their 
interests before him. On 25 November, before the arrival 
of the Emperor's envoy, he made his entry into Rastatt in a 
carriage drawn by eight horses, and was surrounded, courted 
by all the prominent men there as if he were Destiny itself. 
As soon as the Emperor's envoys arrived, with Cobenzl again 
at their head, a settlement was arrived at on i December. 
. . . The protocol was hardly signed when Napoleon, acting 
on the invitation of the Directory, started for Paris.' 

^ Napoleon, a Biographical Study, by Dr. Max Lenz, translated from 
the German by Frederic Whyte, p. 134. 



36 JOACHIM MURAT 

The biographers of Murat, influenced by the ' disgrace ' 
theory, say that he was not allowed to share his master's 
triumph. Chavanon and St. Yves quote a letter of Bona- 
parte's, dated 12 November, 1797, in which he says that 
he is sending General Murat on in advance to Rastatt, and 
then they go on to say : ' However it was not Murat but 
Auguste de Colbert who was actually sent as Bonaparte's 
forerunner to Rastatt. One may see here an indication of 
fresh disfavour, due perhaps to the same causes as the first. 
And while Lannes, Marmont, Bourrienne, Duroc, La Valette, 
were on their travels sharing the triumphs of their master, 
Murat was left for seven months dallying in Italy.' 1 In the 
same way M. Frederic Masson, after speaking of Murat as in 
permanent disfavour with Bonaparte and probably employed 
in the Val Tellina only to keep him away from Milan, says : 
' What is certain is that he did not go with Napoleon either 
to Rastatt or Paris ; he remained with the army of Italy.' ^ 
All these theories are dissipated by one brief dispatch of 
Napoleon's, published in the Murat correspondence, and 
reproduced in facsimile as an illustration. ^ It was written 
on the eve of Bonaparte's departure from Milan and shows 
that Murat had actually preceded him. Here it is : — 

'Headquarters, Milan, 

'The 26th Brumaire, year VI of the 

'Republic, One and Indivisible (i.e. Nov. 16, 1797). 

' Bonaparte, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy, to 

General Murat. 
' I inform you. Citizen General, that I start to-morrow morning 
at nine o'clock to proceed to Rastatt. 

' Give this information to the French plenipotentiaries and 
those of the Emperor, who, I imagine, are impatiently awaiting 
me. Bonaparte 

' To Brigadier-General Murat 
at Rastatt.' 

Murat stood high in the good graces of his commander. He 

1 Chavanon and St. Yves, Joachim Mural, p. 30. 

2 F. Masson, Napoleon et sa Famille, vol. i. pp. 315, 316. 

2 Lettres et Documents pour servir h I'histoire de Joachim Murat, publies 
par S. A. le Prince Murat (1908), vol. i. pp. 20, 21. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF ITALY 37 

not only shared the triumph of Rastatt but he accompanied 
Bonaparte to Paris. But he rejoined the army of Italy in 
time to take part in Berthier's invasion of the Papal States 
in February 1798. 

After the occupation of Rome and the proclamation of the 
Roman Republic on 15 February, Murat was employed at 
the end of the same month in repressing a rising of armed 
peasants who objected to the new liberty forced on them at 
the bayonet's point. Leaving Rome on 27 February at 
the head of a fl3dng column he drove the insurgent bands 
back on Albano, sacked the country house of the Popes at 
Castel Gandolfo, blew in the gate of Albano, and stormed the 
town with the bayonet, killing some five hundred of the 
' rebels,' and then marched on Velletri, which the fate of 
Albano cowed into surrender without fighting. It was an 
inglorious warfare, recalling that of the Chasseur s-hracon- 
niers. He was officially thanked for his services. There 
is no record of his part in the plunder. 

This episode closed his career with the army of Italy. In 
two years he had had experience of all kinds of warfare. 
He had commanded cavalry, infantry and small mixed forces 
of all arms. He had distinguished himself in a long succes- 
sion of engagements and won his rank as general. Garrison 
duty in the Roman States and battues of half-armed peasants 
gave him no outlook for further progress. But now there 
came rumours that an expedition, long in preparation, was 
about to sail from Toulon, with Bonaparte in command and 
a career of conquest in the East for its mission. Murat was 
to have a place in the romantic enterprise. 



38 JOACHIM MURAT 



A 



CHAPTER III 

EGYPT AND SYRIA 

1798-1799 

LETTER from Berthier, dated at the headquarters 
of the army of Italy at Milan on 11 March, 1798, 
informed Murat that ' by order of the Directory ' 
he was to travel at once post-haste to join him there, ' for 
an important object ' that would not admit of delay. He 
would find further orders on his arrival there. These 
further orders were contained in a note from Berthier, dated 
' Headquarters, Genoa, 15 March,' telling Murat to come 
on to Genoa, where he would be attached to the di\dsion of 
General Baraguay d'Hilliers, and command a brigade of 
dragoons (14th and iSth regiments), and would be under 
the supreme command of General Bonaparte in the ' great 
expedition.' He was warned to keep this last information 
secret. 

Passing through Milan in the third week of April he was 
presented with a magnificent sword sent him by the pro- 
visional government of Brescia, in memory of his frequent 
visits to their city. He had to wait some weeks at Genoa, 
for Nelson was watching Toulon so closely that the main 
body of the ' great expedition ' could not be put to sea. On 
28 April the contingent at Genoa was at last embarked, and 
the transports slipped along the coast and anchored imder 
the batteries of Hyeres. There on i May came orders to 
return to Genoa, and disembark. There were rumours of 
trouble mth Austria, and the ' great expedition ' might be 
deferred indefinitely. But a fortnight later there was a 
hurried re-embarkation. A strong gale from the north 



EGYPT AND SYRIA 39 

was driving off Nelson from the coast, but it would be a fair 
wind for the expedition. The main convoy from Toulon, 
under General Bonaparte and Admiral Brueys, sailed on the 
19th. The transports from Genoa joined it at sea, and the 
bloodless conquest of Malta, surrendered by the knights 
without even a show of resistance, was the first exploit of 
the ' great expedition.' 

Murat was ill and in bad spirits at Malta. Perhaps 
the voyage in the crowded transport had something to do 
with it. From the island he wrote to his father (15 June 
1798) :- 

' Malta is ours. The tricolour is fljdng on the ramparts of 
the city. We are to sail in two or three days, I do not know 
where, but I presume it is for Egypt. My health is not of the 
best. That is why I am going to ask for leave to go back to 
you. This will be the only way to set me up again. I have 
reason to believe it will be granted to me. The country is very 
hot, and I shall never be able to stand it. The mail is just going, 
and I have only time to embrace you. Assure my dear mother 
of all my tender love and my desire to see her and the rest of 
the family. Good-bye and a thousand good wishes for all. 
The sea did not make me sick. I am anxious to know if my Uttle 
nephew has started for Paris. — Your most devoted son, 

J. Murat' 

The ' little nephew ' was the eldest son of his brother 
Pierre, for whose education he was providing. By the same 
post he wrote to Barras, saying he was about to ask for leave 
of absence. 

But he changed his mind, and sailed eastwards with the 
expedition, which sighted Alexandria on i July. Murat 
took no part in the capture of the city, and the whole of his 
cavalry brigade was not landed till the 4th. On the 5th 
it was attached to General Dugua's division. On the 6th 
Dugua left Alexandria to march on Rosetta by the sandy 
strip of land that Hes between Aboukir Bay and the lagoons 
of the Delta. Murat's dragoons formed the advanced 
guard. There were not enough horses to mount them all, 
and some of them had to tramp wearily on foot. 



40 JOACHIM MURAT 

It was a trying march in the hot sand under the July sun. 
The men suffered terribly from thirst and heat, and after 
the first hour numbers fell exhausted by the desert track. 
Notwithstanding the fears he had expressed at Malta, Murat 
bore the trying experience well. Pushing on with the 
mounted men of the 14th Dragoons he occupied the handful 
of huts that formed the village of Aboukir and seized the 
fort on the point. Its garrison was a few watchmen, and 
its armament eighteen old guns of various calibres, mostly 
without carriages. 

Next day the march was continued. There was consider- 
able delay in ferrying the men over a broad cutting in the 
isthmus, through which the sea ran into the wide lagoon of 
Lake Edku. At first only some small native craft were 
available, but then some boats arrived from the fleet. 
Leaving Dugua's infantry to cross slowly and bivouac on 
the further side, Murat pushed on with the dragoons and 
occupied the town of Rosetta without firing a shot, the 
Mameluke Bey who commanded there having fled on his 
approach. 

The rest of the column came in next day, and then Dugua 
marched up the bank of the Nile, leaving at Rosetta a 
garrison formed of Murat's unmounted men, and some 
invalided soldiers under Major St. Faust. Murat, in the 
advance up the Nile, again commanded the advanced guard 
now made up of his dragoons and a battalion of light infantr3^ 
The march was by the tracks through the cultivated land 
and under the shade of the endless palm plantations that 
fringe the river. On 10 July the column formed a junction 
at Er Ramaniyeh with the main body under Bonaparte, 
which had marched from Alexandria by way of Damanhour. 

During the advance on Cairo Murat's brigade of dragoons 
remained attached to Dugua's division. It now formed the 
rearguard, and had the task of collecting stragglers and 
exhausted men and bringing them on to the army with the 
transport. Although the conditions of the march were 
better than those of the tramp across the sands to Rosetta, 
the men, overloaded and dressed in heavy belted uniforms 



EGYPT AND SYRIA 41 

fit only for Europe, suffered terribly. Some even committed 
suicide by drowning themselves in the river. When the 
Mameluke cavalry showed themselves the prospect of fight- 
ing helped to revive the spirit of the men. But the enemy 
steadily fell back till at last Cairo came in sight, with the 
great mosque crowning its citadel and the pyramids cutting 
the desert horizon. At the village of Embabeh the Mame- 
lukes had formed an entrenched camp, and in front of it, 
on 21 July, the decisive ' Battle of the Pyramids ' was 
fought. 

On the morning of the battle Murat had a narrow escape. 
Soon after sunrise he had ridden out to reconnoitre the 
enemy's camp, accompanied only by Colonel Laugier, and a 
dragoon orderly. As the Mamelukes had not thrown out 
any outpost line he was able to come within half a mile 
of the camp. There he halted watching with interested 
curiosity the novel scene presented by the Eastern encamp- 
ment, busy with preparations for battle. Suddenly some 
forty spearmen came galloping towards him. Had Murat 
and his friends tried to escape by trusting to the speed of 
their horses they would most likely have been ridden down 
by the better-mounted Arabs. Laugier had an inspiration. 
On his suggestion the three men, without showing any agita- 
tion, rode slowly towards a dense grove of palms. The 
Mamelukes at once concluded that the palm grove must be 
held by the French, and that Murat and his companions 
were trying to lure them into an ambush. They pulled 
bridle and turned back to the camp. As soon as they had 
passed the grove the three Frenchmen put spurs to their 
horses and rejoined their friends. 

During the battle Murat was with Dugua's division, in the 
centre of which Bonaparte had posted himself. The division 
was not seriously engaged, the headlong charge of the 
Mamelukes breaking to pieces on the squares of Desaix and 
Reynier's divisions. Cairo was occupied as the result of 
the victory. The Mamelukes had divided, one portion of 
them under Murad Bey retiring into upper Egypt, pursued 
by a column under Desaix. The rest of them, under Ibrahim 



42 JOACHIM MURAT 

Bey, retreated into the Syrian desert. Murat was on 27 
July appointed Governor of the province of KeHoub/ 
north of Cairo in the Delta, the force assigned to him for 
keeping order and enforcing the payment of contributions 
from the villages being a battalion of infantry, twenty-five 
cavalry, and a piece of light artillery. 

Murat had hardly begun the organization of his governor- 
ship, when news came that Ibrahim Bey was raiding towards 
Cairo. The Mameluke leader advanced along the south- 
eastern side of the Delta, keeping close to the edge of the 
desert, where he could always find a refuge from pursuit. 
On 5 August Ibrahim was in action with General Leclerc's 
force which covered Cairo on the north-east side. The 
fight took place at El-Khangah (El-Khanqa), a few miles 
east of Kelioub. Murat heard the fire of the artillery and 
at once prepared to ' march to the cannon,' sending a message 
to Bonaparte at Cairo asking for reinforcements. Ibrahim 
drew off before Murat's arrival, but a pursuit by a large force 
was at once organized and for some days Ibrahim's Mame- 
lukes had to retire along the Syrian caravan track followed 
up by two columns of infantry, with artillery, commanded 
the right column by Reynier and the left by Dugua, with a 
cavalry brigade under Murat and Leclerc marching at first 
between them and then in advance. The route was by 
Koraim (El-Quaraim) along the edge of the desert towards 
Salheyeh (Es-Sahhiya). There were frequent skirmishes 
on the way, but after their experience of the deadly fire that 
had poured from the bayonet-bristling squares at * the 
Pyramids ' the Mamelukes had no intention of charging 
formed bodies of French troops. The most serious engage- 
ment was an unsuccessful attempt of Murat and Leclerc 
to cut off and capture the enemy's convoy of loaded camels. 
It led to some hand-to-hand cavalry fighting, in which the 
Mamelukes only gave way after they had gained time for 
the convoy to disappear in the wilderness of arid sands 
alternating with brackish swamps and lagoons, through 

^ Qaly&b on the modern official maps — now an important railway 
junction. 



EGYPT AND SYRIA 43 

which the caravan track then ran. It was, however, 
counted a success that Ibrahim had been driven out of Egypt, 
and for deeds of personal valour in the convoy fight Murat 
was specially mentioned by Bonaparte in his report to the 
Directory. 

The campaign against Ibrahim had lasted little more than 
a week. Murat was back at Kelioub on 16 August, and 
was soon able to report that he was ' in the enjoyment of 
perfect peace ' with his province nearly organized, and the 
taxes from the villages coming in regularly. He was able 
to obtain a large number of Arab horses as remounts for 
the cavalry, and at the end of the month (29 August) 
Bonaparte wrote that he ' was extremely pleased with his 
conduct.' 

In September the tranquilHty of the Kelioub district was 
interrupted]by the appearance of a body of Mameluke raiders, 
who were joined by some of the Arabs of the neighbourhood 
and formed a strong band, which made itself master of 
several villages along the Nile. After some skirmishing 
Murat and General Lanusse, in the last week of the month, 
arranged an expedition to break them up. Two columns 
each of five hundred infantry marched on the village 
of Dondeh, while a native boat, improvised into a gunboat 
by mounting four small cannon on her decks, went down the 
river, and entering a wide irrigation canal took up a position 
to cut their easiest line of retreat. Murat's column had a 
difficult march as many irrigation channels had to be passed, 
some by improvised bridges, some by fording the muddy 
water. It came up to the men's waists, and as they waded 
through it they held their muskets and cartridge boxes over 
their heads. The enemy was at last found in position near 
the village of Dondeh surrounded by inundations formed by 
breaking the dykes of the canals. Murat led a bayonet 
charge through the mud and water, and the enemy broke 
before his onset and lost heavily in the pursuit. Ten 
thousand sheep collected by the raiders and a number of 
good horses were among the spoils of the victory, which cost 
the French only four men wounded. 



44 JOACHIM MURAT 

On the first of August Nelson had appeared before Alex- 
andria. At sunset that evening he had swept into Aboukir 
Bay and destroyed the fleet of Admiral Brueys at its anchors, 
and then established a blockade of the coast. The ' Battle 
of the Nile ' had completely changed the situation by cutting 
the French army in Egypt off from France, and Bonaparte 
expected that soon a Turkish army would invade the 
country under the protection of Nelson's fleet. At the end 
of October Murat was sent to inspect the defences of the 
coast district, and he visited Rosetta and Alexandria. 
From the latter place he made a successful expedition to 
break up a ' rebel ' gathering at Damanhour. 

During his visit to Alexandria he sent a short letter home 
by one of the ships that from time to time ran the blockade. 
It is dated 6 November, 1798, and addressed to his father : — 

' I am still alive, dear father, and in the best of health. I am 
grieved at having no news from you. It is the only trouble I 
have to endure. I am not able to give you any detailed news, 
because I am not sure that Messieurs les Anglais will be so good 
as to let this letter go through. I hope to tell you everything on 
my return, which, however, will I hope not be long deferred. 
Embrace my dear mother, and tell her that what I long for most 
is to see her, to embrace her, and forget in her arms all the 
fatigues I suffer. Good-bye. Embrace my brothers and sisters 
for me, and believe me for Hfe your good son, J. Murat 

' P.S. — We have just heard a report that the Grand Turk has 
declared war against us. I don't believe a bit of it. However, 
we are prepared for all events. We do not get any news from 
France. Send my little nephew to Paris, if he has not gone there 
already.' 

In the first month of the new year Murat was employed 
with a fipng column breaking up hostile gatherings in the 
Delta, and scored two more successes on 11 and 20 
January, 1799. Bonaparte thanked him by making him a 
present of a house in Cairo ' as an extra reward for services 
rendered during the campaign, and in compensation for 
the expenses incurred in it.' 

The news that the ' Grand Turk ' was about to attempt 



EGYPT AND SYRIA 45 

the recovery of Egypt was true. A Turkish army was 
assembhng in Syria, and Bonaparte decided to anticipate 
the attack by invading that country. He gave Murat the 
command of the cavalry in the Syrian expedition when he 
marched from Cairo on 10 February. 

Murat's cavalry was a force of only nine hundred men 
formed of detachments from all the mounted corps in the 
army of the East, with a battery of six horse artillery guns. 
With a part of this force he rode at the head of Kleber's 
advanced guard during the march. On 25 February the 
army was before Gaza. Between Bonaparte and the town 
there were six thousand Turkish infantry and a mass of some 
six thousand more Mameluke, Arab, and Albanian horsemen. 
When the French formed for battle Murat found his handful 
of cavalry opposed to this huge force of mounted irregulars, 
and in order to compensate in some degree for the disparity 
of numbers the infantry of Lannes was sent to support him. 

The Mamelukes charged boldly and drove in the three 
foremost French squadrons, but Murat flung the rest of his 
sabres on their flank, while on the other side Lannes fired 
into them at close range. The Mamelukes gave way, pursued 
by Murat. Neither the Arabs nor the Albanians showed 
any determined front, and soon the whole six thousand were 
in flight. The enemy's infantry gave way as promptly 
before the advance of Bonaparte and Kleber with the French 
battalions. They fled so fast that very few were either 
killed or captured in the pursuit. The result of the victory 
was the immediate surrender of Gaza. 

After four days' rest there Bonaparte marched on Jaffa 
and took it by assault. He then marched northwards along 
the coast till his advance was stopped by the determined 
resistance made by Djezzar Pasha's Turkish garrison and 
Sidney Smith's sailors at Acre. 

During the siege Murat was employed in reconnaissances 
and raids in northern Palestine. In a first expedition he 
occupied the village of Shefa Amr, in the hills ten miles 
south-east of Acre, where Djezzar had a splendid palace 
which was converted into a military hospital. Then, on 



46 JOACHIM MURAT 

rumours that the Pasha of Damascus was assembUng an 
army to raise the siege, he was sent into the hills with a 
column composed of 200 cavalry, 500 infantry and 2 guns. 
He was to place a garrison at the ruined castle of Safed, a 
fortress built by the Crusaders on a bold crag commanding 
the road from Acre to the crossing of the upper Jordan at 
Jisr Benat Yacub (the Bridge of Jacob's daughters) , then to 
reconnoitre as far as the Jordan and discover if the Pasha 
of Damascus showed any signs of activity in that direction. 
The small Turkish garrison of Safed made a prompt retreat 
on Murat's approach, and he marched as far as the Jordan, 
sent out scouting parties on the further side of the river and 
satisfied himself that all was quiet in that direction ; then 
leaving a small garrison at Safed, he rejoined the army before 
Acre, after an absence of a fortnight. 

He had strictly obeyed his orders, but he had not pushed 
his investigations far enough, and he had been further handi- 
capped by the hostility of the people, who were all in a 
conspiracy of silence as to the movements of the Pasha. He 
ought to have placed a permanent post at the Jordan cross- 
ing, pushed at least one bold reconnaissance far on the 
further side, and used money freely to obtain the help of 
native spies. Had he done so he would have learned that 
while he was still at Safed the Damascus anny was in full 
march southwards. Before he was back at Acre Jimot, 
who held the district round Nazareth with a detached force, 
was fighting with the Turks, and Safed was closely blockaded 
by the enem3^ 

Bonaparte sent off Kleber's division to reinforce Jimot at 
Nazareth, and dispatched Murat to the rehef of Safed with 
a thousand infantry and a hmidred dragoons. ^ Instead of 
marching directly on Safed Murat, leaving the camp before 
Acre on 14 April, arrived by a forced march through the 
hills in the afternoon of the next day at a point from which 
before sunrise on the i6th he was able to issue into the plain 

1 How the units of the French expedition had shrunk in numbers 
during a year of Eastern campaigning is shown by the fact that Murat's 
column of a thousand infantry was made up of no less than four regiments 
— the 4tli Light Infantry and the 9th, iSth, and 55th of the Line. 



EGYPT AND SYRIA 47 

between the hills of Safed and the Jordan. The dragoons 
galloped to seize the bridge over the river. The infantry 
formed in two squares moved out into the level ground. 
The enemy's cavalry charged them again and again, and for 
a while the two squares were like islands in the midst of a 
raging storm of horsemen. But their levelled bayonets and 
their steady fire beat off every attack, and at last the Turks 
broke, and the French, cheering wildly, advanced on the 
enemy's camp. It was taken almost without resistance. 
The son of the Pasha of Damascus had commanded the army, 
and his camp was a scene of oriental splendour that afforded 
a rich booty to the victors. They were enraged at seeing 
in front of the Turkish general's tent four severed heads 
stuck on spears — heads of Frenchmen captured in an un- 
successful sortie of the Safed garrison. The camp was 
plundered. What could not be removed was burned, and 
that evening the relieving force and the rescued garrison 
bivouacked in the red glare of blazing tents and huts. 

Murat then marched southward by the shores of Gen- 
nesareth, occupied the city of Tiberias, and cut off numbers 
of the fugitives of the main Turkish army in flight from 
Kleber's victory of Mount Thabor. 

After this success he returned to the lines before Acre 
and asked to be allowed to take his turn of duty in the 
trenches. On 6 May, in repulsing a sortie of the garrison, 
he had a narrow escape of being killed. His life was saved 
by his aide-de-camp, Auguste de Colbert, who was himself 
badly wounded in the hand-to-hand fight. Ten days later, 
after the failure of a last desperate assault, Bonaparte found 
himself compelled to raise the siege and begin his retreat 
southwards. ' Thousands of his best were left behind buried 
in the trenches and the galleries of the mines, and probably 
still more were carried off by fever following wounds and 
by pestilence in the hospitals.' ^ 

Murat's cavalry, now greatly reduced in numbers, formed 
the rearguard during the retreat, which ended with the re- 
entry into Cairo on 14 June. He was then employed in 

^ Lenz's Napoleon, p. i6i. 



48 JOACHIM MURAT 

minor operations against bands of Mamelukes and insurgents 
in the Delta. But he was soon recalled from this irregular 
warfare for more serious business. On 12 July a strong 
Turkish army, escorted by Sir Sidney Smith's squadron, 
appeared in Aboukir Bay, disembarked at the village of the 
same name, and entrenched itself on the sandy peninsula on 
which it stands, with its flanks protected on both sides by 
the sea. Bonaparte was preparing to attack the invaders, 
and Murat was recalled to Cairo, where he was given the 
command of the vanguard of the little army assembled there. 

Murat had under his immediate orders 2300 men, including 
a cavalry brigade formed of the 7th Hussars and 3rd and 
14th Dragoons, General Destaing's infantry brigade and 4 
guns. The rest of the army was made up of the division 
of Lannes (2700 men and 5 guns), and that of Lanusse 
(2400 men and 6 guns), in all 7400 men and 15 guns — less 
than the strength of a single division of the Imperial armies 
in coming da3^s. 

On 24 July the French came in sight of the Turkish 
lines. Said Mustapha Pasha, the commander of the ex- 
pedition, had landed some eighteen thousand men. His 
camp was covered by two lines of entrenchments armed with 
artillery. The inner line had a high redoubt in its centre 
and its flanks ran do\\Ti to the shore. The advanced line did 
not extend completely from the sea on its right to the lagoon 
of Lake Aboukir on its left. On the morning of the 25th the 
artillery of Lannes and Lanusse opened fire on the advanced 
line. Then suddenly Murat rode for the gap between its 
flank and the lake with his cavalry and horse artillery. As 
the infantry of Lannes and Destaing advanced to attack in 
front with the bayonet, Murat was on the flank and rear of 
the defences, unlimbering his guns and opening with case 
shot at close quarters. The Turkish line gave way, but the 
cavalry had cut off their retreat and charged them furiously 
as they fled. Within the first hour the whole line was in 
possession of the French. Of the enemy 1200 were prisoners, 
1400 killed and wounded, and 5400 driven into the sea and 
dro^vned. Eighteen guns mounted on the entrenchment were 



EGYPT AND SYRIA 49 

taken, and some fifty standards were collected as trophies 
— Eastern armies carry a large number of flags. 

Then began the attack on the second or inner line. By 
occupying with his artillery a headland of the peninsula 
Bonaparte was able to bring an enfilading fire to bear on the 
extreme right of the Turkish works. The defenders threw 
back their right a little and thus opened a small gap, through 
which Murat charged with the six hundred sabres of his 
hussars and dragoons. He had to dash through a cross fire 
from the redoubt and the gunboats in the bay, but he pene- 
trated into the enemy's lines, charged them in flank and rear, 
and as the infantry attack came into the works turned his 
cavalry upon the Turkish camp. In this last stage of the 
fight an incident occurred that is more common in fiction 
and poetry than matter-of-fact military history. The two 
leaders came into personal conflict. Murat found himself 
face to face with the Seraskier Said Mustapha Pasha. Both 
were wounded in the fight that followed, the Turk being 
disarmed by Murat, with the loss of two fingers taken off 
by a sword cut, but not before he had fired a pistol at 
the French general sending the bullet through his lower 
jaw from one side to the other. The seraskier was made 
prisoner and sent to Bonaparte. Murat roughly bandaged 
his jaw and would not go into hospital till the battle ended. 
Luckily for him the bullet was a small one. It had not 
injured the tongue, or even started out any of the teeth. 
His vigorous health enabled him to make a comparatively 
rapid recovery, all the more easily because he was in the best 
of spirits at the news that Bonaparte was giving him the 
chief credit for the success of Aboukir. The victory had 
been complete. Nearly the whole Turkish army had been 
killed, captured, or driven pell-mell into the sea. A handful 
of men, the remnant of eighteen thousand, were closely 
besieged in the fort of Aboukir. A hundred Turkish 
standards and thirty-two guns were taken, and among the 
captured cannon were found two field pieces of English 
make, presents from the British Government to the Sultan. 
Bonaparte, in a general order to the army, announced that 



50 JOACHIM MURAT 

the ' English cannon ' were to be presented to the cavalry 
brigade in recognition of its prowess, the guns were ordered to 
be inscribed with the words ' Bataille d'Aboukir,' and with 
the name of Murat, and the titles of the three regiments of 
his brigade (7th Hussars, and 3rd and 14th Dragoons). 

In his report to the Directory Bonaparte wrote : ' The 
winning of the battle, which will have such an influence on 
the glory of the Republic, is due chiefly to General Murat. 
I ask you to grant this general the rank of general of division. 
His cavalry brigade has achieved the impossible.' 

He had already promoted his enterprising cavalry leader, 
and Murat had received the provisional warrant of his new 
rank in the hospital on the very evening of the battle. It 
came in the form of an official communication from Berthier, 
as chief of Bonaparte's staff, with the heading, ' Promotion 
on the field of battle of General Murat to the rank of general 
of division,' and set forth that the commander-in-chief wished 
to recognize thereby the general's former services, but 
especially those he had rendered * by contributing in the 
most brilliant manner to the glorious victory of Aboukir,' 
and added that the Minister of War had been informed of 
the appointment and asked to confirm it. 

Three days later Murat was sufficiently recovered to dic- 
tate a long letter to his father from the hospital at Alex- 
andria. He writes in the best of spirits. If the news of the 
victory has reached his home they will doubtless have heard 
of his wound. But he begs his father not to be alarmed. 
The surgeons say he will be well in a fortnight. There will 
be no permanent injury. When he comes back to Europe 
the fair ladies may think he is not quite as handsome, but 
he will be as enterprising as ever. He encloses a copy of 
eulogistic orders to the army reciting his services and his 
promotion. If his father needs help, as no remittance can be 
sent from Egypt, he tells him to apply to a friend who is his 
business man in Paris. He hopes soon to be home, and sends 
a thousand kisses and messages of affection to his mother. 
Then comes a message from the chef de brigade Bessieres, 
who is in an hospital bed near him, and wishes to communi- 



EGYPT AND SYRIA 51 

cate through the Murats with his own people at Preissac. 
Bessieres has been wounded before the fort of Aboukir, but 
is doing well. 

This time the long wished for return to France was near 
at hand. Bonaparte had news of the state into which the 
affairs of the Republic were drifting in Europe, and foresaw 
a crisis in which he would have more to gain by being in the 
centre of things in Paris, than isolated with the army of 
occupation in Egypt. The success won at Aboukir would 
enable him to return as a victor. He left Kleber in command 
of the army, and chose for the companions of his return 
voyage to France some of the most brilliant of his officers. 
Murat was one of this band of trusted adherents. In the 
last week of August, when he was nearly but not quite 
recovered from his wound, he was suddenly informed that 
he was to embark on a frigate in the harbour of Alexandria, 
to return home. He had only a few hours in which to arrange 
his affairs and make his preparations. On the night of 
22 August, 1799, he sailed from Alexandria on board the 
frigate Carrere, commanded by Captain Dumanoir. Amongst 
the officers with him were Generals Marmont and Lannes. 
Another frigate, the Muiron, sailed in company, conveying 
Bonaparte, Berthier and a number of officers and civilians. 
Evading the English cruisers the two frigates reached 
Ajaccio on 30 September, and after a short stay there ran 
across to St. Raphael in the Bay of Frejus, where they 
anchored on 9 October, after narrowly escaping capture by 
a British squadron. 

Murat was back in France after a year and a half of 
absence. He was a general of division at thirty- two, with 
a record of service ending with the chief share in a decisive 
victory. Above all he was now in the inner circle of the 
ambitious soldier who was so soon to be the master of France. 



52 JOACHIM MURAT 



CHAPTER IV 

BRUMAIRE — MARRIAGE TO CAROLINE BONAPARTE — 

MARENGO 

1799-1800 

FROM Frejus Murat travelled directly to Paris, and 
arrived there showed no disposition to renew 
relations with his old correspondent, Barras, the 
chief of the Directory, for its days were numbered, and 
Murat was the ally of the coming man. 

In the hurried preparations for the coup d'etat of Brumaire 
four generals of the ' Army of the East,' Berthier, Lannes, 
Marmont, and Murat were employed in ascertaining the 
feelings and views of the officers stationed in and round 
Paris, and securing the support of those who responded 
favourably to the first cautious advances. Berthier dealt 
with the officers holding staff employment ; Lannes those 
of the infantry, Marmont with the artillery officers, and 
Murat with the cavalry. He secured for Bonaparte the 
support of the three cavalry regiments then in garrison at 
Paris, the 21st Chasseurs a Cheval, and the 8th and 9th 
Dragoons. The 21st was his old regiment, which he had 
commanded against the street insurrection of Vendemiaire. 
The 8th and 9th had both been under Bonaparte in the army 
of Italy, and one of the colonels was Sebastiani, a Corsican 
devoted heart and soul to his fellow-countryman. On 
19 October Murat's promotion to general of division was 
finally confirmed by the War Office. 

On the 18 Brumaire — 9 November — each of the four 
generals had invited eight or nine picked officers to breakfast 
with him. Duroc, the trusted aide-de-camp of General 



BRUMAIRE 53 

Bonaparte, rode round to these gatherings, appeared for a 
few moments at the table, told the guests of the coming 
crisis and proposed that they should mount and join the 
general's staff. Horses had been provided and were waiting 
ready saddled somewhere near by. So at each halt Duroc 
collected a party of officers devoted to his master, and thus 
it was that when Bonaparte rode out to take command of 
the army of Paris he was escorted by a cavalcade of some 
fifty officers of rank whose names were already famous in the 
wars of the Republic. 

That morning Murat was appointed to the command of the 
cavalry in the capital, and personally directed the mounted 
troops that kept order round the place of assembly of the 
Chambers in Paris, while the first stage of intended revolu- 
tion was being carried out — the adjournment to St. Cloud, 
the appointment of General Bonaparte to the command of 
the army of Paris with orders to ' protect ' the meeting at 
St. Cloud, the forced resignation of Barras, and the arrest of 
the two other Directors. 

In the next day's proceedings at St. Cloud Murat played 
a very prominent part. He was beside Napoleon when he 
came out of the Hall of the Five Hundred, complaining that 
he had been insulted and his life threatened. Murat not 
only encouraged him to a further effort, but helped him to 
rouse the soldiers to indignant hostility against the Assembly. 
When after Lucien Bonaparte had resigned his presidency 
and the Five Hundred were declaring Napoleon an outlaw, 
Murat and Leclerc were the two officers who entered the hall, 
sword in hand, at the head of Fregeville's grenadiers. Murat 
shouted, ' Citizens, you are dissolved,' and then turning to 
the grenadiers he told them ' to sweep all these people out 
of the place.' Then the levelled bayonets sent the deputies 
scrambhng out of the windows into the garden. Later the 
minority met to proclaim the change of government, and 
the Consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Long after dark that November evening there was an 
alarm at an old house at St. Germain, where Madame 
Campan, once the companion of the hapless Marie Antoi- 



54 JOACHIM MURAT 

nette, kept a girls' boarding-school. There was something 
like a scare when the place was roused with clank of sabres, 
ringing of horse hoofs, and loud knocking at the gate. But 
it was no hostile summons. Four of Murat's troopers had 
ridden from St. Cloud in the darkness bringing a letter to 
one of the elder girls, Mademoiselle CaroHne Bonaparte, a 
letter written by Murat himself in haste to be first to let her 
know that her brother had become the ruler of France, with 
some useful help from the writer of the letter. 

Murat had seen something of the lady in the days when 
her brother, the young victor of the campaign of Italy, was 
holding his court at Mombello. After the return from 
Egypt, she and her schoolfellow, Hortense Beauhamais, 
were released from Madame Campan's care for a fortnight's 
holiday at the house of the Bonapartes in the Rue de la 
Victoire. She was sent back to St. Germain two days 
before the coup d'etat. Murat saw her more than once during 
this brief hohday in Paris, and from this time, not from the 
days of Mombello, we may date his courtship of Caroline. 
At Mombello he can only have vaguely thought of a marriage 
with her as a remote possibility, for he had not yet penetrated 
to the inner circle. Now the position was changed. The 
day of Aboukir had confirmed him in his own high opinion 
of himself, and further proved that the opinion was to some 
extent shared by Bonaparte. To marry into the family that 
was on the fair way to governing France would be to assure 
his future. But others were forming similar plans for them- 
selves. 

The handsome, lively, and somewhat reckless Corsican 
girl had many admirers among the young officers who visited 
her brother's house. Two of the generals, Lannes and 
Murat, were among them, and Josephine favoured Murat's 
claims. Napoleon, now First Consul, and determined not 
to relinquish the power he had grasped, whatever paper 
constitutions might say, was already foreseeing the time 
when he might have princes among his sister's suitors, but, 
meanwhile, was anxious that Caroline's marriage should be 
so arranged as to strengthen his own position. General 



BRUMAIRE 55 

Moreau was the one man in France who, he thought, might 
prove strong enough to be his rival. A week after the 
coup d'etat the Moniteur of the 24 Brumaire (15 Nov- 
ember) contained an announcement that General Moreau 
would, before long, marry one of the First Consul's sisters, 
and the only sister unmarried at the time was Caroline. 
Bonaparte must have suggested the alliance to him before 
making the announcement, and believed he was favourable 
to it, but the result of the Moniteur paragraph was that 
Moreau told the First Consul he had no aspirations to his 
sister's hand. The statement in the Moniteur was then 
treated as an unauthorised rumour, but the incident made 
the family all the more anxious to have Caroline married as 
soon as might be, if only to show that there was nothing in 
the Moreau rumour, and that no one was disappointed at the 
general's disappearance from the list of possible suitors. 

The choice lay between two of the young generals who 
had thrown in their fortunes with those of the First Consul, 
Lannes, Governor of Paris since the eve of the coup d'etat, 
and Murat, who had been appointed commander-in-chief 
of the Consular Guard on 30 Brumaire (21 November). 
Napoleon favoured Lannes, and at first spoke of the proposal 
of a match between Caroline and Murat as a piece of empty 
sentimentalism. Caroline had taken a giddy fancy for the 
dashing cavalry leader, he said, and did not realize that she 
was perhaps sacrificing a much more brilliant match in the 
future. But Caroline, now freed from Madame Campan's 
school and figuring in the court that surrounded the First 
Consul's wife, not only showed a strong determination to 
choose for herself and to choose Murat, but she found a 
powerful ally in Josephine, who strongly urged the young 
general's claims. 

While the proposed marriage was still being discussed, and 
nothing was yet decided, Murat received the long-delayed 
official confirmation of the promotion to the rank of divisional 
general won on the field of Aboukir. His correspondence 
about this time shows that he was in communication with 
the authorities of his native Department. He presents to 



56 JOACHIM MURAT 

the First Consul an address of congratulation from the 
administration of Cahors ; he sends that body a copy of the 
new constitution under which ' the French people has re- 
covered its rights so long usurped by conspiring factions ' ; 
and he promises to use his influence to promote local interests. 
One important fact about his home we learn incidentally 
from his contract of marriage. Before the new year of 
1800, and apparently some time in the latter half of 1799, 
his father, Pierre Murat, had died, and his widowed mother 
was living with Andre Murat, now the head of the family at 
La Bastide. 

In the first days of January Napoleon agreed at last to 
his sister's proposed marriage with Murat, and the formal 
contract was signed on the ' 28 Nivose, an VIII ' — that 
is, 18 January, 1800 — at the Luxembourg in Paris, then 
officially kno\Mi as the ' Palace of the Consuls.' The drafting 
of the document shows that the Bonapartes had not yet 
entirely got rid of the Italian style they had used in Corsica. 
The First Consul is more than once mentioned as ' Napolione ' 
Bonaparte. The destined bride of Murat, generally known 
by her adopted name of Caroline, is mentioned by her 
baptismal name (Maria Nunziata) in its French form 
' Marie Annonciate.' As she is still a minor (' bom at 
Ajaccio in March 1782 ') her mother Letitia signs for her. 
Her four brothers are parties to the contract. It is agreed 
that there is to be no community of goods between husband 
and \\dfe, both waiving any claim the law may give them in 
this direction, a separate estate being constituted for the 
wife, and her husband agreeing that she shall have power to 
deal freely with her property. Her four brothers make up a 
sum of forty thousand francs as her dowry. Murat agrees 
to settle this amoimt upon her, and to add to it from his own 
resources a sum equal to one-third of it. In addition he 
recognizes as her personal property diamonds, jewels, and 
other effects, to the value of twelve thousand francs. ' Jean- 
Baptiste Bessiere, chef de brigade, cousin,' signs as witness 
for Murat, using an unusual spelling of his name, and claiming 
a relationship of which we now hear for the first time. 




I ' \ 



CAROLINE BONAPARTE, ABOUT THE TIME OF HER MARRIAGE 

FKOM A HTHOGKAl'H BY DELI'ECH 



MARRIAGE TO CAROLINE BONAPARTE 57 

The marriage was fixed for 20 January, two days later. 
On the 19th Murat writes from his house in the Rue des 
Citoyennes (on the south side of the Seine), to inform his 
brother Andre of his good fortune. He is about to start, he 
says, for an ' estate of the Consul Bonaparte,' where next 
day he is to marry the great man's sister. The marriage 
contract was signed last evening. Will Andre tell his sister 
and his mother, and assure the latter that her fortunate 
son is longing to see her and hold her in his arms. He will 
come soon and bring his wife, who ^vill be delighted to greet 
his mother. ' Dear Uttle Caroline ' is going to write to the 
old innkeeper's widow, and Andre is requested to see that 
there is an affectionate reply in proper form. He reports 
that the little nephew in Paris, the son of his brother Pierre, 
is doing well, then he comes back to his marriage : ' Adieu. 
To-morrow I shall be the happiest of men. To-morrow I 
shall have for my own the dearest of women.' 

It was not to an ' estate of the Consul Bonaparte,' but to 
his brother Joseph's princely domain of Mortefontaine, 
nineteen miles from Paris on the way to ChantiUy, that the 
happy pair had been invited for the celebration of the 
wedding. It was a purely civil ceremony. The Republican 
calendar, which had abolished the Sunday, was still in 
vogue, and the thirtieth day of the ' Snowy month ' {30 
Niv6se = 20 January) had been chosen for the civil cere- 
mony, because it was a ' decadi,' a tenth day, the day of the 
rest in the new system. So, too, the party did not go to 
church, but to the ' tenth-day temple ' {temple decadaire) of 
Plailly, the village near Joseph Bonaparte's park and 
chateau. The civil officer who declared Murat and Caroline 
man and wife in the name of the Republic was Citizen Louis 
Dubos, President of the Municipal Administration of Plailly. 
Neither the First Consul nor Josephine was present. The 
Bonaparte family was represented by the mother of the bride, 
her brothers Joseph and Louis, and her uncle, Fesch. General 
Bernadotte, ex-Minister of War was one of the witnesses 
for Murat. General Lannes was magnanimously present to 
congratulate his successful rival. 



58 JOACHIM MURAT 

The bride and bridegroom did not remain long as Joseph's 
guests amid the woods and lakes of Mortefontaine. Murat, 
within the week, took Caroline to his house in the Rue des 
Citoyennes, and proudly appeared with her in the salons of 
the Luxembourg, and the handsome pair were night after 
night the honoured guests at balls and parties, for, 
thanks to the First Consul, Paris had a court once more, 
and was trying to live up to its newly refurnished 
splendours. 

The general was a striking figure. Above the middle 
height and with the frame of a giant, but without any 
clumsy heaviness, he liked to appear in one of the showy 
cavalry uniforms of the Consular Guard. Every move- 
ment was marked with vigour and restrained impetuosity. 
The dark eyes that looked out from his full good-humoured 
face sparkled with animation. The marks of the wound 
received at Aboukir were concealed by the short whiskers, 
black as the mass of curling locks that in the fashion of the 
time came down to his embroidered collar. 

He did not dance. At balls he was content to hold 
Caroline's fan and gloves, and appear as her faithful 
squire. On these occasions she would sometimes wear the 
diamond necklace, the gift of the First Consul, but oftener 
her husband's present, a necklace of fine pearls that had 
cost Murat thirty thousand francs. She was tall, with a 
beautiful fair complexion, a pleasant smile, a lively engaging 
manner. Unflattering critics said she was not the beauty 
of the family, that her head was too large, her shoulders 
rounded, her figure too slight, her neck too thick. Perhaps 
her portraits flatter her, for they do not make one ready to 
believe such carping descriptions. She played her part as 
hostess at the Rue des Citoyennes in a way that was helpful 
to her husband's prospects. 

He appears to have really been anxious to revisit La 
Bastide, and bring his wife with him to the scenes of his 
boyhood. He wrote to Andre to buy a house and get it 
ready for him, but the intended visit had to be deferred 
indefinitely, for within three months of his marriage he 



MARRIAGE TO CAROLINE BONAPARTE 59 

received sudden orders for employment that was the 
prelude to active service. 

In the middle of April he was directed to proceed at once 
to Dijon, and take command of the cavalry of the * Army 
of Reserve ' which was being formed in the south-eastern 
Departments, with its headquarters in the old Burgundian 
capital. He left Caroline in Paris and was at Dijon on 
the 19th. 

The First Consul was preparing one of the most daring 
strategic combinations in order to restore the military 
fortunes of France, and at the same time secure a long 
lease of power for himself. During his absence in the 
East, the Republican armies had suffered defeat after 
defeat. The Austrians had overrun northern Italy, and 
Massena was with difficulty holding on to the old Genoese 
territory, while Suchet with a small force watched the 
borders of Provence. Moreau with the Army of the Rhine 
guarded the eastern frontiers. But amid the disasters of 
the preceding year the Republicans had not lost the control 
of Switzerland, and Napoleon meant to take advantage of 
this as the basis of the coming campaign of 1800. The 
fact that the ' Army of Reserve ' was being assembled in 
Burgundy, and on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, did 
not betray the secret of his projected enterprise. Pre- 
cautions were taken to prevent any detailed information 
as to its strength becoming public property, and the First 
Consul was pleased to hear that the Austrian newspapers 
ridiculed the idea that any considerable force could be 
assembled in that quarter, treated the ' Army of Reserve ' 
as a myth, and explained that the most the French could 
do would be to assemble an inconsiderable force to guard 
the passages over the Alps, and perhaps reinforce either 
Suchet in the south or Moreau in the east to a moderate 
extent. 

Murat as commander-in-chief of the cavalry had the title 
of lieutenant-general, but this did not indicate any new 
step of promotion. The title was a temporary and local 
one, assumed by a general when he took command of a 



6o JOACHIM MURAT 

group of several divisions or brigades, and thus acted as the 
' Heutenant ' of the commander-in-chief of all the armed 
forces of France — the First Consul.^ Murat's duties 
were those of inspection and organization. On his arrival 
at Dijon he was received with enthusiasm by the regiments 
assembled there. His reputation as a daring and fortunate 
leader made him popular with the army, and his appear- 
ance was believed to be the herald of Napoleon's coming. 

This was the case. Napoleon arrived at Dijon a few 
days after his lieutenant. His original plan of campaign 
had been to move the Army of Reserve into Switzerland, 
unite it to the troops already there under General Moncey, 
make Zurich and Lucerne his base of supply, and marching 
over the St. Gothard strike directly at Milan» forcing the 
Austrians to withdraw from their attacks on the Une of the 
Genoese Apennines by thus appearing in their rear and on 
their line of communications. While keeping the essential 
principle of his plan he had modified its details, and 
decided to act at an earlier date than he originally intended, 
because in the course of April the position in north Italy 
and on the Riviera had suddenly become very serious. 
The Austrians had forced the line of the Apennines. Melas 
had pushed Suchet back along the Riviera to Nice, while 
his lieutenant. General Ott, had driven Massena into Genoa, 
and was besieging him there with the co-operation of an 
English squadron blockading the harbour and cutting off 
all supplies by sea. The place was short of provisions, 
and the garrison was soon almost starving, but Massena 
was grimly holding out though his soldiers and the popula- 
tion were in the direst straits. 

The Austrian commander regarded an attack from the 

1 Murat's force was a cavalry division of four brigades, made up of a 
large number of regiments, some of these units being veiy weak. The 
total strength was about six thousand sabres. Two horse artillery guns 
were attached to each brigade. The organization was as follows : — 

1st Brigade. — General Champeaux, 12th Hussars, 21st Chasseurs a 
Cheval. 

2nd Brigade. — General Rivaud, ist Hussars, 2nd and 15th Chasseurs. " 

3rd Brigade. — General Duvigneau, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Dragoons. 

4th Brigade. — General Kellerman, ist, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 20th Cavalry 
of the Line. 



MARRIAGE TO CAROLINE BONAPARTE 6i 

Alps as an impracticable operation, and expected that if 
the much talked of ' Army of Reserve ' were a reahty, it 
would make its appearance as a reinforcement for Suchet 
on the French Riviera. He left the passes unguarded, 
except by a few weak posts incapable of prolonged defence. 
Napoleon ordered Moreau to cross the Rhine and enter 
southern Germany so as to keep the enemy occupied in 
that direction, while he moved the troops in south-eastern 
France and Switzerland across the nearest Alpine passes. 
He himself led the strongest column over the Great St. 
Bernard, mounted not on the prancing charger of David's 
well-known picture, but on a sure-footed mule. Murat 
went with him, with the two light cavalry brigades of his 
division. For many a mile of mountain paths the men 
tramped on foot leading their horses. Two smaller columns 
each some five thousand strong, under Generals Thurreau 
and Chabran went over the passes of Mont Cenis and the 
Little St. Bernard. From Switzerland General Moncey led 
fifteen thousand men over the St. Gothard, and sent a 
brigade of three thousand under General Bethancourt over 
the Simplon. If Napoleon had been opposed by a leader 
equal to himself these various columns would have been 
checked and beaten in detail before they could combine 
their operations in the plains of northern Italy. But he 
took great risks cheerfully because he knew his enemy. 

As soon as the passage of the Great St. Bernard was 
successfully completed Murat pushed on with his cavalry 
and horse artillery, and on 27 May occupied Vercelli. 
He kept close touch with the retreating Austrian detach- 
ments, co-operating with Lannes in driving the enemy's 
rearguard from the banks of the Sesia, and entering Novara 
on the 29th. 

The Austrian general, Festemberg, had halted on the 
Ticino to bar the way to Milan. He held the eastern 
bank, and had removed all the boats he could find down 
the river to Pavia. On 31 May Murat was on the river 
bank at Galliate, with his cavalry, the infantry of Boudet's 
division, and the artillery of the Consular Guard. An 



62 JOACHIM MURAT 

artillery duel began across the river, while Murat sent 
scouting parties up and down the bank to search for a 
crossing. The people of Galliate, or the more active party 
of them, were friendly to the French, and they showed 
them where they had some boats hidden in an irrigation 
canal. These were pulled out into the Ticino above the 
town and the crossing began. Murat had some of the 
grenadiers of the Consular Guard formed up on the 
opposite bank before the enemy discovered that the boats 
were at work. Turbigo, the scene of MacMahon's exploits 
on the day of Magenta, fifty-nine years later, was taken, 
and steadily reinforcing his advanced party, getting his 
guns across on rafts, and swimming his horses, Murat 
solidly established himself on the eastern bank. In the 
darkness at ten o'clock Turbigo was retaken by a counter- 
attack of the Austrian general, Loudon, but by midnight 
Murat had captured it again at the bayonet point, and the 
enemy was in full retreat southwards. Next day the 
French army crossed the Ticino at several points and 
concentrated about Buffalora ; Murat with the advanced 
guard marching to Sedriano on the direct road to Milan. 
On 2 June he continued his march under a dull sky 
amid intense heat, and at four in the afternoon rode 
triumphantly into Milan amid the muttering of a distant 
thunderstorm. 

On the news that a great army had descended from the 
Alps into Piedmont and Lombardy, Melas had stopped 
his advance along the French Riviera, and was moving 
towards the passes of the Apennines to meet the invader. 
He had given Ott orders to raise the siege of Genoa, but on 
I June Massena, reduced to starvation point, had sent 
out a white flag to arrange terms of capitulation. Ott 
succeeded in keeping Massena's officers in ignorance of 
what was happening north of the Apennines, and on the 
4th Genoa surrendered, and the garrison marched out with 
the honours of war. Melas then diverted every available 
man to the scene of the coming conflict in Lombardy. 

Napoleon's first object after securing Milan was to seize 



MARENGO 63 

the crossings of the river Po. Murat with his cavalry and 
Boudet's infantry division was at the famous bridge of 
Lodi on the Adda on 4 June. Thence he marched next day 
to the left bank of the Po opposite Piacenza, starting at 
3 A.M., and in the forenoon coming in sight of the outwork 
on the north bank, which covered the floating bridge of 
boats leading across the river to the city. 

The place was held by a small Austrian garrison under 
General Mosel. He did not feel himself strong enough to 
hold the north bank, and when Murat attacked the bridge- 
head the Austrians soon abandoned it, leaving eighty 
prisoners in the hands of Boudet's infantry. They cut the 
floating bridge, but the French seized some of the boats that 
had formed its northern end, and collected a few others. 
Murat had thus a flotilla of some twenty boats in all in his 
possession at nightfall. With these he began ferrying his 
men across below the place. Next morning he stormed 
one of the gates of Piacenza, and at the head of his horse- 
men drove back an Austrian column with was coming up 
to reinforce the enemy. Part of the garrison held out in 
the citadel. In the town he captured considerable quantities 
of ammunition and provisions stored in the magazines, 
and a convoy of thirty barges laden with supplies moored 
at the river bank. The further trophies of the victory 
were two standards and thirteen guns. There were more 
than fifteen hundred prisoners, among them an officer with 
dispatches from Melas to his Government, from which 
Napoleon learned the news of the fall of Genoa. 

Murat blockaded the citadel of Piacenza for three days, 
then on 9 June, Loison's division arrived to maintain 
the blockade, and he was set free for further active work. 
Before marching off he wrote a letter to Napoleon. So 
far he had only corresponded with headquarters, by means 
of official letters to Berthier as chief of the staff. While 
he was serving with the army, Napoleon's brother-in-law 
was merely ' General Murat commanding the cavalry,' and 
a letter directly addressed to the commander-in-chief was 
a military irregularity. But Murat was so pleased with 



64 JOACHIM MURAT 

his success that he could not resist the temptation to write 
freely about it to the great man, instead of confining himself 
to formal routine communications. * I have not written 
to you, so far, mon general,' he says, ' for fear of offending 
you and General Berthier, and I suppose he shows you all 
my letters.' He expressed a wish to have more men at 
his command. He would then do still more useful work. 
Among the gossip of the letter there was an ungallant 
reference to the wife of an Austrian general of Irish descent 
whom he had found at Piacenza. ' The wife of General 
O'Reilly is here in my quarters. I am showing her all the 
courtesy that is due to the fair sex, though she is ugly 
enough.' 

On the evening of the 9th, as he marched from Piacenza, 
Murat received orders to hand over Boudet's division to 
Desaix, who had just arrived from Egypt, and to con- 
centrate all his cavalry under his own command for the 
coming struggle with the main Austrian army under Melas, 
which was now north of the Apennines. He joined the 
First Consul's headquarters at Voghera. 

On 14 June Marengo was fought, one of the most 
fiercely contested battles of the Napoleonic wars. It 
lasted from nine in the summer morning till nightfall, and 
at one time it seemed that the long struggle would end in 
disaster for the Republic. Napoleon had personally to 
rally broken infantry retiring in confusion before the 
Austrian onset. But late in the day the arrival of Desaix 
with a fresh division, and a splendid charge of two of 
Murat's brigades, led by the younger Kellerman, turned 
the tide of fight, and changed impending defeat into decisive 
victory. 

There was a relatively considerable force of cavalry 
engaged on both sides,i and the ground was favourable 

^ Compared to modern battles and those of Napoleon's later cam- 
paigns, the numbers engaged at Marengo were small. At the outset, the 
Austrians were the stronger. Taking the numbers engaged from first to 
last they had 28,000 men in action, including some 6000 cavalry. The 
French opposed to them 28,500 men, including 5200 cavalry. The losses 
were heavy. Four thousand seven hundred French were killed and 
wounded, and about 900 taken prisoners (in the first stage of the fight). 



MARENGO 65 

to mounted action, the first ground of the kind Murat had 
seen in the campaign, roUing plains without fences, a con- 
trast to the swampy rice-fields and endless irrigation canals 
and causeway roads of Lombardy. The cavalry was 
engaged frequently during the long-drawn contest, but 
generally acted in independent brigades, Murat never being 
able to collect his whole division for a united attack. One 
of his brigadiers, Champeaux, was killed while charging, 
at the head of his men, to cover the retirement of the broken 
infantry. Murat then united the 2nd brigade to Keller- 
man's command. He himself repeatedly charged, sword 
in hand, beside one or other of his brigadiers. Throughout 
his career, when acting as commander-in-chief of the 
cavalry, it was never his way merely to send orders to his 
subordinates to lead this or that brigade or division to 
the charge. He would gallop up to the head of a brigade, 
flourish his sword, or oftener his riding-whip, point to the 
object of attack, and spur forward the foremost in the 
wild rush to death or glory. Berthier, in his report on the 
battle, tells how — ' The cavalry, under the orders of General 
Murat, made several decisive charges. General Murat had 
his clothes riddled with bullets,' but he escaped unwounded. 
At the moment when the battle seemed lost, Berthier 
placed a battalion of 800 grenadiers of the Consular Guard 
under Murat, who, as their old commander, knew them 
well. They stood like a ' living citadel ' in the midst of 
the broken line, retiring foot by foot with bayonets fixed, 
and firing volley after volley in the faces of the Austrians, 
while Murat led charge after charge to relieve the pressure 
upon them. ' They lost 121 men killed and wounded,' 
says Murat in his report, ' and I owe them very special 
praise.' 

Next day he hung on the rear of the retreating Austrians, 

The Austrians lost 6500 killed and wounded, and 2966 prisoners. The 
percentage of loss was much higher than in any recent battle. At Marengo 
the victors lost 16-5 per cent., or, including the prisoners, 20 per cent. 
The Austrians lost 23-2 per cent, in killed and wounded, or, if we include 
the prisoners, 33-8 per cent. Compared to such losses, the heaviest losses 
in South Africa were trifling, and even in the battles of the Russo- 
Japanese War, lasting for days, the total loss seldom exceeded 10 per cent. 



66 JOACHIM MURAT 

and collected a considerable number of prisoners. Napoleon 
recognised that he owed to him no small part of his success, 
and when he handed over the command of the army of 
Itidy to Berthier, and hurried back to Paris after the 
victory, he took Murat with him to share his triumph in 
the capital. 



THE ' ARMY OF OBSERVATION ' 67 



CHAPTER V 

THE ' ARMY OF OBSERVATION ' — COMMAND IN ITALY 

1800-1801 

ON I July Murat was again at his house in Paris, 
in the Rue des Citoyennes, and CaroUne was 
welcoming her husband, crowned with new laurels, 
and her brother, now the greatest man in Europe. It is 
pleasant to find that one of Murat 's first acts, on the very 
day of his return, was to write an effusively affectionate 
letter to his old mother, who, in the inn at La Bastide, 
where she lived with her matter-of-fact son Andre, had 
been reading the praises of Joachim in the bulletins of 
victory, and bearing as well as she could the disappoint- 
ment of hearing again and again that the oft-promised 
visit to the old home was deferred. One wishes that 
General Murat had proved the sincerity of his professions 
of filial affection by finding time for a flying visit to 
La Bastide, where the house that Andre had bought 
for him was long prepared for his arrival. The letter, 
with its thoroughly French phrasing, is almost untrans- 
latable. It sounds crude in English, but here is a literal 
version : — 

'Paris, 12 Messidor, an VIII, 
' I /uly, 1 800. 

' I hasten to announce to you, my adorable mother, my return 
to Paris. It is a long time since I have had any news from 
you ; but my good little Caroline who has had some, did not fail 
to send it on to me. You are well ; you always love me ; you 
love my wife ; I am the happiest man in the world ; but I shall 
be still happier when I have the happiness of embracing you. 
Adieu ; love me ; I shall soon be near you. My wife too, 



68 JOACHIM MURAT 

embraces you very affectionately. — The most affectionate of 
sons. J. MuRAT 

' My lillle nephew embraces yon. 

' A thousand messages to all my brothers and sisters.' 

A week later, on 6 August, he wrote to her again, 
tilling her, ' with more sorrow and regret than he could 
express/ that the promised visit to La Bastidc must be 
once more deferrinl. lie had been ap]X)intcd to the com- 
mand of a ' camp of grenadiers,' and could not go home. 
' Only peace, and peace is now not far off, can give me the 
opi^ortnnity,' he says, ' but I swear that then no power 
will i)revent me from coming to see you, embracing you, 
and never leaving you again.' Here the general ' protests 
ioo nnich.' TluM-e was not the shghtest probability of 
his burying hinis(^lf in a country house at La Bastide. But 
he goes on to give practical proof of his affection for his 
people. He sends his mother 4000 francs for herself, 
2000 more for AndnS 2000 for his sister Jaccjuette, and 
2000 for Madelon. Madelon, he suggests, can use the 
nioney to pay her debts, an allusion to some news from 
home, ' If you need any more,' he continues, ' write to 
me, and I shall at once send you all you wish for.' If 
his married sister, De Mongesty, wants anything, they 
have only to let him know. He tells his mother to take 
care of his nephews. When he comes he will take them 
with him — a flat contradiction of the promise to stay at 
La Basliil(\ written a few hues higher up. Caroline sends 
good wishes. ' She will soon make me the happiest of 
fathers, as I am the happiest of husbands,' he says. He 
ends by asking his niollui- to console herself with the assur- 
ance that in two months— and perhaps sooner — he will be 
with her. 

Murat had been given his new command on 2 August. 
He was to complete the organization of a division of 
grenadiers and ' eclaireurs ' (light infantry) in a camp to 
the north of Beauvais, the training being done under 
canvas, so as to idlow the division to be prepared for 
campaigning, by moving its quarters from point to point 



THE ' AKMY OF OBSERVATION ' 69 

and working over new ground. Probably with a view to 
improving his own position with Napoleon's right hand 
man, the future Marshal B(;rthier, he asked for the appoint- 
ment of his l)r(;thcr, O'sar Berthier, as his chief of the staff. 
In a letter written a few days later, he aslcs for a supply of 
tall bearskin caps for his grenadiers. He explains his 
ideas on the subject : — ' You kncjw that the bonnet d foil is 
the head-dress for the grenadier. And indeed, what enemy 
is sufliciently master of his morale not to be shaken l)y the 
advance of a strong body of grenadiers, with th(; tall caps 
that add a foot to their height, and give them the most f formid- 
able military appearance ? ' Then he asks for a standard 
for each battalion. ' The flag is indispensable in a manoeuvre 
camp, and still more in action. It reanimates the courage 
of the soldier wearied with the fight, and there are times 
when, carried by a few l:)rave men into the midst of the 
enemy, it can make a doubtful victory certain.' He must 
have bands of music to ' charm the idle hours of the soldier 
in camp, make him forget his fatigues during manoeuvres, 
and intimidate the enemy in action.' Other letters deal 
with reports on camping-grounds near Beauvais, request 
the addition of engineers and ambulances to his command, 
and go into details as to supplies. The correspondence 
shows that Murat took his work very seriously ; that he 
was not a mere dashing leader of cavalry charges, but that 
he was ready to deal with the drudgery of organization 
and training, and appreciated the importance of att(mtion 
to every detail. He formed his division into an independent 
force of all arms, obtaining the addition to it of artillery, 
cavalry, and departmental corps. One of his troubles was 
the want of money. In a letter of 18 August, he com- 
plains that the pay of his men is six months in arrear, and 
that, notwithstanding a promise of the First Consul to pro- 
vide the funds, he cannot get a sou. On 22 August he 
secures a small instalment of 10,000 francs, and next day 
100,000. Then we hear of a brigade of the hne arriving 
from Amiens. The Beauvais camp was growing into a 
strong force. Peace negotiations had been begun, but 



70 JOACHIM MURAT 

they dragged on from week to week and were broken off, 
so that it was not until after the winter campaign and 
Moreau's victory at HohenUnden that the war came to an 
end. Murat was, therefore, doing useful work. 

In October the force which he had formed and trained 
in two months of continual manoeuvres was reviewed by 
the First Consul, then the camp was broken up and the 
troops marched southwards to Lyons to join a reserve 
army that was being concentrated there in view of the 
probable renewal of hostilities. Murat, having done his 
work, returned to Paris. Among his letters there is one 
dated from Paris, on 28 October, which shows that he 
was in friendly correspondence with the family of Mion 
Bastit. It is addressed to Francois Bastit, then employed 
in the administration of the Department of the Lot. He 
speaks of his hope of visiting Cahors on the conclusion of 
peace ; says he has just heard of the death of one of his 
nieces ' which has greatly pained me,' and asks Francois 
Bastit to be a friend to his old mother at La Bastide, and 
to all the Murat family. In a postcript Caroline sends a 
friendly message. Official letters to the War Minister, in 
the first part of November, show that he inspected the 
detachments from the Beauvais camp on their march south- 
wards through Paris, and was busy making good various 
minor deficiencies in their equipment. 

He had done his work at Beauvais very thoroughly, but 
he was anxious to secure the command, not of a training 
camp, but of a force that would be employed in the field, 
if the conference at Luneville came to nothing, and war 
began again on a grand scale. Orders had been given to 
form an army of reserve in eastern France, \\dth head- 
quarters at Dijon, and Murat used all his influence to be 
appointed its commander. Early in November he heard 
that Joseph Bonaparte, then at Luneville for the peace 
negotiations, was putting forward a rival candidate in the 
person of General Bemadotte, who had married his sister- 
in-law, Desiree Clary. He sent at once an ultimatum to 
Joseph. If Bemadotte was put before him, he declared that 



THE ' ARMY OF OBSERVATION ' 71 

he would hand his resignation of his general's commission 
to the First Consul. On the critical day of Brumaire 
Bernadotte had stood neutral, waiting prudently to see 
who would conquer. Murat believed that he had even 
sided with the hostile majority in the Five Hundred when 
Napoleon withdrew from their hall, after having failed to 
secure their support. So he wrote to Joseph : — * I will 
never look on quietly and see power passing into the hands 
of a man who, on the 18 Brumaire, was on the side of those 
who voted the outlawry of the family.' Now that he was 
the husband of Caroline, he wrote as one of the Bonapartes. 

Napoleon himself suspected the loyalty of Bernadotte, 
and Joseph's candidate had really no chance against Murat, 
who, on 20 November, was appointed to the command of 
the ' Army of Observation ' at Dijon. On the 27th, for 
the second time, he established his headquarters in the old 
capital of Burgundy. Before leaving Paris he had sent a 
short note to Andre Murat promising once more to come 
to La Bastide as soon as he was free. 

One can trace his restless energy, his grasp of detail, 
his impatience for results, in the long list of letters written 
or dictated on the day of his arrival — requisitions for 
supplies from various quarters, requests for new units to 
be added to his command, directions for immediately 
placing part of his force in a position to descend into Italy 
at a moment's notice by moving a strong column to 
Chambery in Savoy. Next day he wrote a long letter to 
the First Consul. He explained that he had departed from 
the directions given to him in Paris by sending General 
Sarrazin's column to Chambery instead of Geneva, because 
the roads on that side were ' less bad,' and supplies could 
be more easily obtained. The only drawback was that 
the movement might ' reveal a few days sooner the ultimate 
destination of our troops ' {i.e. north Italy). He complains 
— as he had had to complain at Beauvais — that it is difficult 
to obtain money from the Treasury, so that the pay of the 
troops is in arrear, and the officers could not even settle 
up their local debts before marching off. Then there is a 



72 JOACHIM MURAT 

long postscript which reveals his disappointment that he 
is still in a subordinate command, and merely preparing 
reinforcements for the army in Italy, and cannot yet look 
forward to being general en chef, commander-in-chief of 
an independent force in the event of a winter campaign 
beyond the Alps. Inartistically frank flattery of the First 
Consul mingles mth his plea for an improved position for 
himself. The postscript is thoroughly characteristic : — 

' The brother-in law of the Consul Bonaparte has had a perfect 
reception here ; all the constituted authorities proclaim Bona- 
parte the saviour of France and the pacificator of Europe. — 
General Murat asks you as a favour, my General, to allow him 
to go with the second column. He has been welcomed and feted 
here as a Commander-in-chief, and the title is given to him both 
in speaking and in v^nritten documents. Every moment he feels 
having to hear people say, " Your army will do good service " — 
" Your army is splendid." And all the while it is known that he 
is not a commander-in-chief, though it had long since been 
rumoured that he would have this standing. He feels himself 
in an uncomfortable position. Will you deign to free him from 
it as soon as possible ? ' 

Bonaparte did not act upon these suggestions. Murat had 
to be content with his modest functions of organization 
and preparation, and his orders for a march to Chambery 
were countermanded by the Minister of War, and Sarrazin's 
column directed to Geneva. His correspondence shows 
that he worked very hard at Dijon. He had the Alpine 
passes reconnoitred and something done to improve the 
wretched mountain roads. On 5 December he orders 
all stores in the magazines of Dijon to be hurried up to 
Geneva, and everything prepared for a march by the Val 
d'Aosta and over the sno\vy passes of the Little St. Bernard. 
' The Corps of Observation is to be transferred to Italy.' 
Even at the last moment he has to complain of lack of 
equipments. He sends requisitions to Lyons for 4000 
overcoats, 4000 shirts, 4000 pairs of shoes and 2000 horse- 
shoes for the artiUery and cavalry, to be supplied at once. 
In a letter to Bonaparte — one of the many \vritten on that 



THE ' ARMY OF OBSERVATION ' 73 

busy day — he says that he will ' punctually execute ' the 
order for the march over the St. Bernard, though he ' fore- 
sees great difficulties.' He encloses a report exposing the 
swindling practices of the army contractors, and sends 
with it a sample of the wretched material they use for the 
men's greatcoats. 

Before he left Dijon for Geneva, Murat had a letter from 
the First Consul's uncle, Fesch, telling him that Caroline 
was well, and he need have no anxiety about her. There 
would soon, he hoped, be news of the birth of an heir. Then 
he gives him the current rumours of Paris. It was said 
that Murat is to command the 3rd corps of the Army of 
Italy, Bernadotte the 4th. The plan of campaign would 
be a descent from the Alpine passes as far east as the Grisons, 
with ' Magdonal ' (Macdonald) operating through the Tyrol, 
It was not, however, at all certain that there will be a 
campaign or that Bonaparte will take the field, for there 
is a general expectation that Austria will make peace. 

The expectation was well founded. Moreau had advanced 
with the Army of the Rhine into south Germany, and on 
3 December he had defeated the Austrians, under the 
Archduke John, on the field of Hohenlinden. He followed 
up the retreating enemy through the snows of Bavaria, 
and was about to invade Austrian territory, when, on 
25 December, the armistice was signed that was the 
prelude to the treaty of Luneville and the temporary 
pacification of Europe. 

But in Italy there was no armistice till the middle of 
January, and the First Consul had directed Macdonald 
from the Grisons and Brune from Lombardy to co-operate 
in gaining as much ground as possible from the enemy in 
Venetia while the state of war continued. Murat had 
left Dijon for Geneva on 10 December, So far he had 
written in an optimist spirit of the progress and condition 
of his force, but on the 15th, he wrote from Geneva to the 
Ministry of War that he could no longer be silent about 
the wretched state of his artillery. The roads from Dijon 
to Geneva were frightful. The march by the Jura had 



74 JOACHIM MURAT 

been * the final blow ' ; the roads from Morey to Nyon were 
deep in snow and covered with slippery ice. He had 
requisitioned teams of oxen for the guns and wagons, but 
of eighteen guns he had only got six through to Nyon, the 
rest were still in the mountain roads struggling with 
' incredible difficulties.' Twelve guns, luckily sent on to 
Geneva before the snow fell, had been got as far as Annecy. 
The transport train was in a miserable state of dis- 
organization. The soldiers were deserting, some of them 
taking away the horses and selling them, the quarter- 
master-sergeants were rascals, and their officers not much 
better. All the local authorities, mayors, prefects, sub- 
prefects, seemed to be protecting and encouraging desertion. 
Unless the Government took rigorous measures there 
would soon be no recruits. The conscripts came to the 
depots to ' steal ' a suit of clothes and go home with it. 
He was doing what he could to reorganize the artillery and 
train. * It is cruel for me, Citizen Minister,' he concluded, 
* to be forced to set such frightful pictures before your 
eyes, but rest assured that I shall labour without respite 
to reorganize this so essential part of my command.' The 
letter throws a light on the condition of the French armies 
during the winter campaign when France was thoroughly 
tired of the long war. 

There were pressing orders from the Paris War Office 
to Murat to have his troops at Milan at the earliest possible 
date. Part of the infantry was sent over the Little St. 
Bernard — a difiicult march. It was found impossible to 
get the guns over the pass even on sledges. The Simplon 
was reconnoitred as an alternative route, but this was 
found impracticable. Finally the guns were dragged over 
the Mont Genevre pass and reached Milan by way of Turin. 
Murat arrived there in the last week of December. 

Brune had begun hostilities against the Austrians under 
Bellegarde by advancing against the line of the Mincio, 
while Macdonald made a splendid march over the ice and 
snow of the Spliigen to descend upon the enemy's flank and 
rear. The Austrians were forced steadily back, making 



COMMAND IN ITALY 75 

no obstinate resistance anywhere. Murat was irritated 
at being kept idle at Milan, and being under Brune's orders 
as a mere subordinate commander on the line of com- 
munications. On the New Year's day of 1801 Milan heard 
the news of the * Attempt of Nivose,' the explosion of an 
infernal machine in the Rue Nicaise at Paris when the 
First Consul was on his way to the opera, with Josephine 
and Caroline in his carriage, on the evening of the 3 
Nivose, an ix (24 December, 1800). Murat made the 
news the text for a long letter to Napoleon. 

The first part of it is written in the high-flown style of 
the Revolutionary time. He tells how the universal joy 
at Milan was suddenly interrupted by the terrible news. 
Then he goes on : — 

' Ah ! my dear general, you have been in danger and I have 
not been there to share it. This attempt has frozen me with 
horror. It was aimed at all your family. Ah ! far from me 
be the heart-rending picture of what might have been — my young 
Caroline, on the eve of being a mother, rolled in the dust and 
bathed in blood ; your whole family massacred on your lifeless 
body. Ah ! pardon my begging that you will not leave me in 
the state in which I am ! Your armies are everywhere victorious. 
They no longer need me and the brave men I command. Recall 
me to your side, and rely on them, for they are entirely devoted 
to me. It will be a great joy to be with you, and the scoundrels 
who may think of assailing you in the future will have to pass 
over our corpses to reach you.' 

Then after this plea for a recall to Paris, there is a most 
unworthy attack upon his commander-in-chief. General 
Brune. The general, he says, seems to have lost his head, 
says he has enemies at Paris, expects a blow from that 
quarter. Can it be that the scoundrels, who have 
attempted the First Consul's life, have accomplices in the 
armies, and even among those who command them ? 
He will name no one. If he knew them they would not 
long survive. But he cannot help thinking that the 
* brigands ' who planned the assassination, must have 
relied on support from men in high places after it. Then 



76 JOACHIM MURAT 

he attacks Brune's military conduct. He saj^^s he is at 
variance with Macdonald, and does not really command 
the army. Every general is doing what he likes himself. 
There was nearly a disaster at the passage of the Mincio. 
' Brune gives me no orders,' he adds, * and I am here waiting 
for yours.' 

The letter shows Murat at his worst, chafing at his 
position, too proud to remember the claims of military 
discipline, grasping at any chance of leaving the army, and 
meanwhile trying to blacken the character of his chief by 
wild insinuations and reckless charges. Napoleon sent 
a reply that must have done something to bring him to his 
senses. He told him that he was an officer of the army of 
Italy, and must not correspond directly with him, but 
report to his commander, Brune. ' I do not approve of 
all the remarks you make to me ' is his curt dismissal of 
Murat's accusations. As to his desire to return to Paris 
he says : — * A soldier should be faithful to his wife, but 
should not wish to return to her until it is decided that 
there is no more work for him to do.' 

Before this reply could reach Murat he received from 
the Paris War Office direct orders to march upon and 
occupy Ancona, which, it was claimed, belonged to the 
French Republic under the Treaty of Campo Formio. He 
was to avoid any act of hostility to the Pontifical States, 
He was told that Brune had been informed of this arrange- 
ment, and a letter from the general confirmed this. Murat, 
pleased to have something to do, wrote to him with more 
than mere formal politeness. But the old ill will remained. 
On 13 January he asked the First Consul to relieve him 
of his command. He was anxious to leave Italy, and to be 
spared the sight of the commander-in-chief's blunders. 
He reported to him in proper form, he said, and Napoleon 
need not fear that he would commit any indiscretions. 
Then he proceeds to be indiscreet enough : — 

' However,' he continues, ' I must speak to you about his 
movements. I cannot endure seeing any longer the laggard and 
unskilful advance of the army, which only marches to victory 



COMMAND IN ITALY 77 

because it is still guided by your genius. The army marks all its 
movements with new blunders, and abandons itself to the most 
awful pillaging. All the country from the Adda to the Brenta 
is ruined. The most detestable discord prevails among the 
generals. They all want to command, and not one of them is 
capable of it. Bellegarde is allowed to make a leisurely retreat, 
and is evacuating the country without being disturbed.' 

Then he goes on to write a long hostile criticism of Brune's 
operations, praising Macdonald in order to blacken Brune 
the more by contrast. At the end of the letter he mentions 
that Brune has just directed him to occupy Tuscany on 
his march to Ancona. 

Napoleon took no notice of Murat's proffered resignation 
of his command, and of his criticisms of his chief. He 
pointed out to him, however, that Brune's having entrusted 
him with the occupation of Tuscany was a proof of his 
confidence, and bade him not to delay in carrying out his 
orders. Murat was to proceed to Bologna, and take over 
the command there of the troops destined for the march 
to Florence and Ancona. He reached Bologna on the 
evening of 17 January. There was already a French 
force in Tuscany under General MioUis, which had repulsed 
from Siena a Neapolitan corps under General de Damas. 
An Austrian column from Ancona was reported to be at 
Forli. On the evening of his arrival at Bologna, Murat wrote 
to MioUis that the first division of his troops would be at 
Florence on the 30th to support him. If the Neapolitans 
were retiring he was simply to follow them up, and reoccupy 
the positions they evacuated, but not to go beyond the 
borders of Tuscany. He (Murat) would presently take 
over the command, and require all available men for the 
march on Ancona. The same evening he wrote to the 
French consul at Leghorn for information as to the move- 
ments of the Neapolitans, and, quite unnecessarily, gave 
him an outline of his plan of campaign, based on the 
supposition that he would have to fight both Neapolitans 
and Austrians. It was a piece of boasting, a prophecy of 
imaginary successes. 



78 JOACHIM MURAT 

For there was to be no fighting. At Bologna Murat 
found General Levachoff on his way to Naples on a 
mission of diplomatic courtesy, conveying decorations to 
the Neapolitan court from the Czar Paul. Murat knew 
that the First Consul was anxious to cultivate friendly 
relations with Russia, so he did his best to entertain 
Levachoff. He wrote to Napoleon that he had got up 
for the Russian general a banquet and a masked ball, given 
him a guard of honour, and arranged that the civil and 
military authorities should wait upon him. Then, taking 
Levachoff with him, he hurried on to Florence, where he 
arrived on 20 January. The Russian had told him that 
his master had written to Bonaparte asking him to spare 
the kingdom of Naples, so Murat's first act at Florence 
was to send a letter to De Damas asking him if he still 
entertained hostile views towards France. The officer 
who conveyed the letter took with him a message from 
Levachoff to the Neapolitan headquarters, and the result 
was that General de Damas began at once the evacuation 
of Tuscany, retiring into the Pontifical territory. 

Then came news that under the terms of the Treaty 
that was being arranged at Luneville, the Austrians had 
agreed to hand over Ancona. All that Murat had to do 
was to send an officer to arrange details and choose one 
of his regiments to form the garrison. Thus in a few days 
he found himself in peaceful possession of central Italy, 
commander-in-chief, de facto if not de jure, and holding a 
kind of military court at Florence. To add to his satisfac- 
tion there came news from Paris that on the 21st Caroline 
had given birth to a son, the Prince Achille Murat of future 
years. 

Murat had now for a while to play the diplomatist and 
the politician rather than the soldier. Peace had been 
arranged with Austria. The First Consul was all powerful 
in continental Europe. Only England still continued the 
struggle against him, and his policy in Italy was directed 
to closing the ports of the peninsula against English com- 
merce. This was to be a first condition in the peace to be 



COMMAND JN ITALY 79 

arranged with Naples. Munit was also to secure or compel 
the evacuation (A Rome ;i.nd the Pap;j.l States by the 
Neapolitan ;i,nny. Northe.rn Italy was already a Fn-nch 
province under the name of the Cisalpine Republic. In 
central Italy, Napoleon, who was anxious to be on good 
terms with the Pope, and was already planning the Con- 
cordat and the restoration of religion in France as a useful 
auxiliary to publir; fjrder, had decided that th(i Pap;i.l States 
should be respef:ted, France being content with the occupa- 
tion of Ancona. Tuscany and the min(;r duchies of central 
Italy were to be formed into a new state, the kingdom of 
Etruria. Murat had not yc;t been informed of his project. 
The Grand Duke had taken nifuge in Austria, and the 
council of regency, established on his departure, had been re- 
placed by a triumvirate of modr;rate men frienrlly tf) France, 
to the disgust oi the; J;i.cobin party in Florence. Murat 
reported that there was widespread misery anrl much dis- 
order in Tuscany, and, after publishing a proclamrition to 
its people promising them the inauguration of a better 
state of things and inviting them to co-operate with him 
in bringing it abfjut, he laid an embargo on all English 
property at L(;ghorn, and announced that the ports of 
central Italy were hcncrforth closed to the British flag. 

In the negotiations with Naples, Murat was supported 
by the friendly action of the Russian ambassador to the 
Bourbon court. There is no need to follow in detail the 
story of the exchange of projects and counter-proposi- 
tions that ended in peace being signed at the end of March. 
Suffice it to say that the terms originally demanded by 
Murat, as directed by Talleyrand, were the evacuation of 
the Papal States, the liberation of all French prisoners and 
of persons imprisoned for political action on behalf of 
France, the seizure of all English and Turkish ships in 
Neapolitan ports, and an order that no further supplies 
should be sent from Sicily to the English fleet blockading 
Malta. In order to enforce the evacuation of Rome 
Murat pushed forward a division of French troops from 
Tuscany, first to Foligno, then to Perugia. Under this 



8o JOACHIM MURAT 

threat the Neapohtans began the evacuation, and yielded 
every point except that of the embargo on British shipping. 
Finally it was arranged that this should not be mentioned 
in the treaty of peace, but should be the subject of a separate 
and secret convention, the Bourbon Government obtaining 
this small concession by paying a million and a half of 
francs into the military chest of Murat's army, thus reliev- 
ing him of serious difficulties in keeping his troops paid 
and supplied. This had hardly been arranged when the 
First Consul sprang a new demand on the Bourbon court — 
the occupation of the port and arsenal of Taranto by the 
French. The Neapolitans protested that the treaty had 
been accepted by Murat, and that this new proposition 
was a breach of faith, but on a peremptory order from Paris 
to Murat to resume hostilities and march on Naples, his 
last demand was also conceded. 

While the settlement with Naples was still being arranged, 
Murat was cultivating friendly relations with the Vatican. 
On 23 January he addressed from Florence a long letter 
to Pope Pius VII. He informed him that in case of the 
failure of the negotiations with Naples, his troops might 
have to march through the Papal territory, but assured him 
that in that case the strictest orders would be given that 
property and religion should be respected, and he expressed 
his own desire to do everything to ' re-establish their former 
good relations ' between France and the Holy See. 

Consalvi, the cardinal Secretary of State, thanked him 
for his letter, and sent one of his secretaries, Mgr. Caleppi, 
to Florence to discuss the situation with him. Murat 
wrote again to Consalvi on 2 February, telling him how 
pleased he was with the result of his conversations with 
Caleppi, which showed that there was the best prospect of 
friendly relations between France and Rome. He told 
him to assure the Holy Father that there would be no 
interference with the government of his States, asked that 
the local authorities should everywhere remain at their 
posts, and suggested that no Frenchman, Cisalpine or 
Tuscan should be allowed to remain in Rome without a 



COMMAND IN ITALY 8i 

passport from the French headquarters. This was with a 
view to preventing the extremists he had driven from 
Florence organizing an agitation in Rome. The First 
Consul did not want another Roman Republic. 

On 13 February, a long-standing ambition of Murat's 
was satisfied. He was no longer to report to General Brune. 
His army, in Tuscany and the Papal States, was, by a decree 
of the First Consul, given an independent existence under 
the name of the ' Army of Observation of the South,' and 
he himself the rank of general en chef. He had estab- 
lished his headquarters at Foligno, in the Papal States. 
As he himself noted in one of his letters to the Minister of 
War, notwithstanding all the reassuring messages he had 
sent to the Vatican, the presence of his troops so near Rome 
made the Pope and the cardinals anxious, and encouraged the 
Repubhcan agitation in the city. On 18 February he wrote 
that, at the earliest possible date, he would retire into 
Tuscany and use part of his force to seize the island of 
Elba. Consalvi had already been urging their withdrawal. 
Murat, at his wits' end for money for the army, suggested 
to the cardinal that the retirement of his force from Foligno 
might be facilitated by his finding some funds for the 
expenses of its maintenance. The cardinal, after plead- 
ing the poverty of the Pontifical States, at length agreed 
to pay a hundred thousand Roman scudi, and sent Murat 
as a present for himself a valuable cameo. Murat sent it 
on to Caroline. Caleppi had invited him to visit Rome, 
and, as soon as the preliminary armistice was signed with 
Naples, the general and his chief of the staff left Foligno 
for the city, where they arrived on 22 February. Murat 
stayed at the Sciarra Palace for three days as the guest of 
Consalvi. He had several audiences with Pius VII, and 
made an excellent impression on him and on the cardinals. 
Consalvi wrote in praise of his courtesy, his sense of justice 
and his moderation. The cardinal tells in his memoirs 
how Murat won his heart by an act of generous considera- 
tion. Caleppi had drawn up a proposed draft of a treaty 
between Pius VH and the French Republic in which, in his 



82 JOACHIM MURAT 

anxiety to conciliate Murat and his master, the First Consul, 
he had included a stipulation that the British flag should 
be excluded from the Roman ports. Murat told Consalvi 
that the draft treaty might be taken as the basis of negotia- 
tions with France. The cardinal had never seen it till 
then, and said Caleppi had no authority to propose or 
accept the exclusion of the flag of any Christian people 
from the ports under the Pope's control. Pius VII, he 
said, considered it the duty of his office to be the friends 
of all, and to stand neutral in their disputes. Murat argued 
the point, but Consalvi stood firm. The general might 
easily have reported to Paris that this condition had been 
proposed and refused, but he took a generous course. 
' Well,' he said at last, ' since this treaty causes so much 
pain to you and the Holy Father, let us throw it in the fire 
and say no more about it.' 

As the result of the friendly relations thus established, 
the contribution of the Pontifical State to the expenses 
of the army was reduced to 73,000 scudi. Murat and his 
officers were well pleased with their visit to Rome, and 
accepted from Pius VII and Consalvi a number of cameos 
and other works of art as tokens of friendship. 

He returned to Florence in the first week of March. He 
had already written to Ali Pasha, the ruler of Albania, 
assuring him that France was the good friend of the Mussul- 
man powers, and asking him to release a number of French 
prisoners, taken when Ali seized the fortresses of the Illyrian 
coast. He had also sent off ships from Ancona with supplies 
of ammunition for the French army blockaded in Egypt. 
In a letter to the First Consul, dated 8 March, he told 
him that the generals and officers were all afraid of being 
sent to Egypt. He had assured them that there was no 
reason to expect this. In the same letter he reports that 
he had assisted with his staff at a Te Deum in the Duomo 
for the re-establishment of peace, he had given a banquet 
in the evening, there had been a general illumination, and 
salutes of artillery had been fired during the day. 

At the end of the letter there was a message for his wife : 



COMMAND IN ITALY 83 

— ' Scold Caroline. She is running about to balls. She 
will fall ill, and I shall lose my dear good Caroline, and 
Achille his little mother.' The news of Caroline came in 
letters from uncle Fesch, who passed on to Florence all the 
gossip of Paris. Fesch wrote, a few days later, that he had 
found CaroUne in tears after reading a letter from her 
husband. He assured Murat that she and the child were 
well. She could not refuse invitations to balls, but she 
was none the worse for the fatigue. She would soon be 
with him in Italy, and so put an end to his anxieties. 

Peace having been concluded with Naples, and friendly 
relations re-established with Rome, Murat's next business 
was the inauguration of the new kingdom of Etruria. 
This short-lived State was to come into existence in virtue 
of a clause in the Treaty of Luneville, which gave prac- 
tical effect to an arrangement already made by Napoleon 
with the Spanish Bourbons — part of his policy of an alliance 
between France and Spain. The Duke of Parma, Ferdinand 
de Bourbon, was the grandson of Philip V of Spain, and 
was married to a Spanish infanta. Parma, Modena, Lucca 
and Tuscany were to form the new kingdom over which 
he was to reign at Florence as Ferdinand I of Etruria. 

While the accession of King Ferdinand was being arranged, 
Murat prepared to execute another provision of the Lune- 
ville Treaty by which Elba was ceded to France by Etruria. 
A summons to the Tuscan governor of Porto Ferrajo was 
followed by the concentration of a brigade at Leghorn. 
The embarkation was delayed by a mutiny of some of the 
troops, who thought that they were going to be shipped off 
to Egypt. At last, in the night of 30 April to i May, 
the expedition disembarked at Porto Longone in Elba, 
under General Tharreau. Longone surrendered at once, 
but the capital of the island refused to submit and held out 
tiU November against Tharreau's brigade besieging it by 
land, and Admiral Gantheaume's squadron blockading the 
port. 

On 6 May, Caroline arrived at Florence with little 
Achille. Murat was delighted with the child. ' Achille 



84 JOACHIM MURAT 

is charming, he has already cut two teeth/ he says in a 
postcript at the end of a long official report to the First 
Consul. It was shortly after Caroline's arrival that he 
wrote (i6 May) to his aged mother at La Bastide, a char- 
acteristic letter that must have delighted old Jeanne 
Murat, always a devout Catholic : — 

' It is a long time since I have written to you, my dear Mother, 
but be quite sure that it is not through forgetfulness, for you 
are always present to my heart. And how could I forget her 
who gave me life, brought me up in the first years of my boy- 
hood, and gave me the means of happiness in making me affec- 
tionate ? The Holy Father has sent me a rosary for you, blessed 
by his own hand. What a pleasure it is to me to send you this 
mark of attention on the part of the Head of the Church. What 
a joy it will be to you to receive it. I am the happiest of men, 
for I have with me my Caroline and my pretty Achille. My 
happiness would be complete if you were near us ; if I could 
console your old age. How I envy my brother's lot ! He is 
with you, he sees you, he loves you, he ought to be very happy. 
Adieu, my dear mother. I hope to go to Bareges. Then I shall 
have the pleasure of embracing you. I embrace you with all 
my heart. J. Murat 

' I send you the portrait of the Pope.' 

It was a miniature that Pius VII had given to him. So 
Jeanne Murat hoped again to see her son. 

Caroline shared with her husband the honours paid to 
the representative of France during the long series of 
fetes that marked the foundation of the new kingdom of 
Etruria. In July, Murat visited King Ferdinand at Parma. 
In August Florence was en fete for the reception of its 
king and the proclamation of the new constitution. 

Murat had completed his work in central Italy. He had 
proved to the First Consul that he could render him solid 
service in the field of administration and diplomacy as 
well as at the head of his troops. The impression he had 
made at Rome was especially useful now that the 
negotiation of a Concordat with the Holy See was one of 
the chief points of Napoleon's policy. Consalvi's letters 
show that Murat was regarded as a personal friend. Among 



COMMAND IN ITALY 85 

the presents sent to the general at Florence there was a 
valuable Raphael from the cardinal's own gallery. 

After the f^tes of Florence he received, early in August, 
a welcome proof of Napoleon's esteem for him. He was 
given the command of all the troops south of the Alps, 
the ' Army of Italy,' and in the middle of August he was 
directed to make Milan, the capital of the Cisalpine Republic, 
his headquarters. 



86 JOACHIM MURAT 



CHAPTER VI 

MURAT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN 
1801-1803 

MURAT took up his residence at Milan on 20 August. 
Brune, whom he had so persistently attacked in 
his letters to the First Consul, was generous 
enough to write to him congratulating him on his appoint- 
ment. Murat, who had learned something of diplomacy, 
sent a most courteous reply. ' My dear Brune,' he wrote, 
' I beg that you will believe that I feel how much I am 
flattered in being chosen as your successor, and at the 
same time how difficult it is for me to replace you.' Brune 
was anxious that one of his divisional generals, Boudet, 
should be given a command in the Cisalpine Republic. 
Murat expressed his pleasure at being able to comply with 
this request. He was all the more pleased, he said, because 
Boudet had acted with him in the Marengo campaign. 
But these were all empty comphments on his part, for, on 
15 September, he wrote to the First Consul : — 

' Brune wrote to me some time ago to ask me to employ Boudet 
in my command, and I thought it right to ask this of Berthier 
(the War Minister). Policy required me to take this step, but 
a sounder policy requires that I should ask you not to send him 
here. AU the generals of the Army of Italy have been spoiled. 
They think they are all Commanders-in-chief.' 

The episode throws an unpleasant light on the self-seeking 
insincerity of Murat. 

He wrote to his brother-in-law reporting adversely on 
the civil administration of the Cisalpine Republic. The 
officials were not up to their work. The whole system would 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN 87 

have to be changed. As to the mihtary forces in north 
Italy, they were too much scattered in small garrisons. 
His first step was to concentrate in larger bodies both the 
French army and the Italian troops of the Republic, and 
arrange peace manoeuvres for the month of September. 

Murat's correspondence during the autumn of 1801, 
mostly dated from Milan, is chiefly made up of letters 
dealing with the routine business of the moment. Here 
and there one comes on a passage that throws light on the 
disturbed state of northern Italy. Murat is no longer 
the ardent partisan of the Revolution. He is on the side 
of order. The existing Government at Milan he regarded 
as dangerously weak and inefficient. The actual 
administration had offered its resignation to the First 
Consul, who was to elaborate a new Constitution for the 
Cisalpine Republic. Writing on 28 August to Napoleon 
Murat urged that there should be no delay in making a 
change. 

' Here, as everywhere else, authority that cannot make itself 
respected produces only evil, and this evil may have unfortunate 
results, if steps are not soon taken to remedy it. I think, there- 
fore, that you ought not to hesitate to accept the resignation 
which the Government has sent to you. It will be easy to replace 
them. There are here men of worth and good repute whom 
public opinion already looks to for this purpose. They will 
carry out your views and secure the prosperity of the Cisalpine. 
The French name will then be no longer hateful, and we shall 
hear no more of rich landowners and pretended aristocrats being 
assassinated in the name of Bonaparte. 

' Berthier orders me to make this Government respected. It 
is as if he said to me, " Make yourself the accomplice of its follies." 
I cannot at all make up my mind to play such a part. It is too 
repugnant to my views and my duty, and would identify me too 
much with him. He writes letters to people here that one is 
sorry to read, that show his weakness, and these his correspond- 
ents publish by hawking them round the cafes. I would not 
mention this to you, only that Moncey has already sent you 
copies of some of these letters. Berthier lets these people here 
parade him as their supporter and to believe them one would 
think that he, and not you, was the protector of the Cisalpine. 



S8 JOACHIM MURAT 

Besides, I swear to you, and 5'oii know that I have no reason to 
mislead you, that all the Republic is waiting impatiently for a 
Constitution which is known to be generally based on our own. 
Any other of a more popular kind, and therefore more favourable 
to the party now in power, would be received with sorrow.' 

The new Constitution which, under Republican forms, 
gave all effective power to the President and his colleagues, 
was not adopted till December, when Napoleon met the 
delegates of the Cisalpine State at Lyons, was himself 
chosen chief of the Republic, and selected as his repre- 
sentative at Milan and Vice-President of the Cisalpine, 
Melzi, the head of a noble Milanese family and a man of 
moderate Conservative views. 

Long before the Lyons conferences Murat was able to 
report that there was no disorder in northern Italy, and 
his subordinates were carrying out the training of the troops 
in the various camps and garrisons. As commander-in- 
chief at Milan he had a very easy position, and more ample 
resources than had yet been at his disposal. His pay and 
allowances amounted to 328,000 francs a year (more than 
thirteen thousand pounds sterling). Except for a few 
daj^'s when she went to see Venice, Caroline was ^vith him. 
But, in the third week of October, Madame Murat left Italy 
to return for a while to Paris, taking Achille with her. 
Murat wished to go with her, but the First Consul refused 
his request for leave of absence. He accompanied 
Caroline, however, as far as the French side of the pass of 
Mont Cenis. He was back at Milan on 18 October. 

In the beginning of the month news had reached Milan 
that preliminaries of peace between France and England 
had been signed at London. Murat sent the news to Pius VII 
in a letter to Consalvi, in which he addresses him familiarly 
as ' Mon cher Cardinal.' He wTote also to Elba directing 
the general in command of the siege of Porto Ferrajo to 
conclude an immediate armistice with the garrison, which 
w^as made up of a British contingent, some emigres officers, 
and a small body of Tuscans. On the eve of the armistice 
the garrison had made a sortie in which life was lost on 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN 89 

both sides. It was the last engagement of the war. 
Another letter of Murat's was addressed to General Menou, 
commanding the French army in Egypt. He told him 
that peace was concluded, and said : ' May this news find 
you a conqueror, or at least unconquered, as you have 
been till now ! May it be a recompense for the glorious 
resistance you have made, and the undaunted courage you 
have shown.' The aide-de-camp who sailed from Ancona 
with the letter was to buy some Arab horses in Egypt 
for his chief. But when Murat came back from the Mont 
Cenis on 18 October he found and sent on to Napoleon 
letters, received from Alexandria by way of Taranto, that 
told of the defeat and capitulation of the French army in 
Egypt on the eve of the peace. In November he wrote a 
formal letter to ' the Consuls of the French Republic ' 
stating that, while he was in Egypt, General Bonaparte 
had given him, in recognition of his services, a house at 
Cairo, which, as a result of the capitulation of the army 
under Menou, he could no longer hope to possess. He 
asked that, in compensation for this loss, its value should 
be paid to him, and added that, if this petition was granted, 
he meant to devote the money to the making of a road 
connecting the Departments of the Lot and the Cantal, 
and passing through his native commune. ' This would 
be his first service to the country in which he was bom.' 
I can find no trace of the petition having had any result. 
Murat's first gift to his native Department was character- 
istically a portrait of himself, painted by a Milanese artist, 
which the Departmental authorities hung in a place of 
honour in their hall of assembly. 

During the war numerous corps of volunteeers had been 
organized in northern Italy. These were now a subject 
of anxiety. Murat reported that they were at the call of 
any promoter of disorder. It was decided to disarm them. 
The operation was carried out peacefully except at Bologna, 
where, in the evening of 3 November, the cavalry and 
artillery of the local National Guard joined the free corps 
in resisting the order. The cannon of the National Guard 



90 JOACHIM MURAT 

were brought out in front of the town hall and loaded. 
The gunners stood by them with lighted matches. In the 
hope of inducing the French troops to side with the revolt 
placards were posted, headed ' Death to the chiefs of the 
army. Eternal friendship to the soldiers.' General Gobert, 
who commanded at Bologna, turned out the whole of the 
garrison, disarmed the National Guard, captured their 
seven cannon, and arrested the leaders. After this Murat 
ordered that National Guardsmen in north Italy should not 
be allowed to keep their arms at home. Muskets, bayonets, 
and cartridges had all to be stored in armouries, where, 
if need be, the troops could take possession of them. This 
would prevent any dangerous demonstrations when the 
new Constitution was proclaimed. 

He was still anxious to revisit Paris, and made repeated 
applications for a short leave of absence, but it was not 
till the end of December that the First Consul thought he 
could safely leave his post. One reason for his wish to be 
again for a short time in the capital was that he was 
expending large sums in the purchase of property in and 
near Paris. The commanders of the Republican armies 
in the days of the Consulate found means to accumulate 
considerable fortunes, and Murat had been one of the most 
successful in this respect. He had already purchased, on 
15 June, 1800, the estate of Villiers, near NeuiUy-sur- 
Seine, as weU as the old church and cemetery of Villiers. 
On 15 December, 1801 he bought, through his Paris 
agents, an estate at La Motte-Sainte-Heraye in the Depart- 
ment of the Deux Sevres, which was estimated to produce 
an annual revenue of 32,000 francs. The price was 470,000 
francs. Within four months he expended more than a 
million francs. His fortune was probably not entirely 
the result of economics on pay allowances. On 12 
January, 1802 half a million was paid as the price of the 
Hotel Thelusson, which he meant to make his town house 
in Paris. The Hotel was one of the finest houses in Paris, 
a palace built in 1780 by the architect Ledoux for the 
millionaire banker Thelusson. With its courtyards and 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN 91 

gardens it covered an extensive site with two fagades, 
one on the Rue de Provence, the other on the Rue de la 
Victoire. Carriages arriving by the great archway on 
the Rue de Provence passed by a paved slope to a terraced 
road round the garden, leading to the arcade under which 
the guests alighted at the foot of the great staircase. Thence 
the carriages went down by another inclined road to the 
range of stables fronting on the Rue de la Victoire. The 
great staircase led to the reception rooms, two ante- 
chambers, two immense drawing-rooms, a concert hall, a 
library, and a picture gallery. From one of the drawing- 
rooms the windows opened on a portico of Corinthian 
columns, giving access to a terrace adorned with statues that 
looked out on a walled garden. Murat had made a good 
bargain in securing this palace at the price he paid for it, 
and he spent money freely in redecorating and furnishing 
it for Caroline. In the following March there was another 
purchase, a considerable tract of land being added to his 
country estate at Villiers, at the cost of 153,000 francs. 

It was in the last week of December that he at length 
obtained leave to visit Paris. He went as far as Lyons 
with some of the Milanese delegates to the conference that 
was in session there, and was at home for the New Year. 

On 4 January, 1802 he was with Caroline among 
the guests at the marriage of Louis Bonaparte, the 
First Consul's brother, and Hortense Beauhamais, the 
daughter of Josephine by her first marriage. It was a 
briUiant gathering. The civil ceremony had taken place 
in the morning at the Tuileries. In the evening the rehgious 
marriage ceremony took place at the old home of the 
Bonapartes in the Rue de la Victoire. A large room had 
been converted into a temporary chapel, and at the impro- 
vised altar stood the Papal Legate, Cardinal Caprara, 
wearing cope and mitre, with crosier in hand. Napoleon 
and Josephine were there, and Madame Letizia, the First 
Consul's mother. There, too, were Joseph Bonaparte 
(about to start for Amiens to settle the final treaty with 
England), and Lucien and the sisters of the First Consul. 



92 JOACHIM MllKAT 

With Paulino was hor husbaiul. (.ionoial 1.i\Umv. alnnit to 
t;o io tako ooumiaui,! in San l\Muint;o. Whon the i\mUi\al 
\u\d cxulcd i\\c (cwmony ot (he uianiai;o. iNhnat laiwo 
foiward Knuling Caiohno by tho hamh Ho toKl Cai>rara 
that on acoount of tho stato of affaii-s in iManoo at tho 
tinio of his maniai;o thoio had boon only tho oi\il loiniali- 
tios vonuirod by tho law. and ho and his wilo now wishoil 
for tho blosshig of tho (Muuvh on thoir union. So thoro was 
a sooond ni.\niai;o ooioniony, tho oltoot ol whioli. by tho law 
of tho (.'huivh. would bo to iou\o\o all doubts as lo (hologiti- 
niaoy of littlo Aohillo.' 

Murat spout a tow ila\s at l.y<>i\s in tho last wook ot 
Januarw and was ai;aiu at Milan in tho bot;iuuit\t; ol 
hVbruaiy. By a pioolauiatiou datod .: Ivbiuary. i8o^ 
addrossod to tho pooplo oi tho (isaliMuo. ho announood to 
tluMU that thoir now ("onstitution had boon vonipU^tod, and 
that tho Staio had boon givon a now nanio, ' I'ho Italian 
Ko]niblio.' Us foundor would watoh ovor its progross 
nndoi" tho now lOi^imo. for ' Honajvnto " would In^ ihc hoad 
of tho roor4;ani/od stato. Tho Xioo-lhosidont Mol/.i. who 
would dirootly oxoroiso his authority aniont;' thoui. had 
* boon ohoson for that ouiiuont position by tho viuoo of 
pnblio opinion.' .\ ui^w poriod of hapinnoss hail boi;ni\ 
lor thon\. Tho now nanio of tho 'Italian Kopublio ' 
would bo a luotixo for bnryiui; in oblivion tho troubles and 
tho errors oi the past. ' This n.uuo should .uouso in your 
souls a noble pride. It foreibly sinnnioi\s yon to tho love 
of all tho virtues, the eultiv.it ion of .\ll tho arts, whieh have 
so loui; .ulorued the happy laud oi Italy.' 

The ' happ\' kind ' h.id. iue,\uwhile. lo providi^ on a hboral 

• In llui colUvtion ot I ctiti-s d l\\utntttis (\'«> s<-tvs> ^^ i'llistoire dt 
Jihuhtm MtititS, tliovo is .v lottrv vlatoil " I yon. i.| NivO>so. an \. ^.^ jutwier, 
ivSo.').' I'ho pl.V(.o ^l.yon) h,»s ;vpp;nvntly boon svippliod by tho oditor 
to a U^ttor bo.ivini^ only tho vlato. I'horo is hoiv iv onrions ovorsij^ht on 
tho pavt ol un oaitov as oompotont ami us ctuotul as M. Paul l.olUoton. 
lor it is qnito covtuin that on .\ January. M»>rat was in l^vris. Tho 
lotlor (l.titK's ft l\',iimntts, vol. ii.'p. .'.'O) is aiUliTsstnl to Mumt's cliief 
ot tho stall, (.'.onor.vl Chavpontior, and vloals with various military tlotails. 
It must havo boon wrilion in Paris, and poihaps Mur.U puiposolv omit tod 
to avlvl tho place tv> tho il.Uo, as wIumi ho lott Milan it was };o(\or.\ily utxilor- 
stoovl that it was oulv tor tho purposo ot procooams; to I wmts to t.iUo 
piut in tho discussvons on tho now Constitution i»t tlio (."is.ilpmo Kopublio. 



COMMANDER-IN-CnrEF AT Mir.AX 93 

scale for the pay and maintenance of its French garrison. 
Napoleon had said that he did not mean to send one sou 
across the Alps, and, before the ink on his procJamatirm 
was quite dry, Murat was writing to King Louis of Etruria, 
that he must at once pay his share of the contributions, 
Murat was himself well provided for, haUjrt he bade 
good-bye to Napoleon at Lyons, Iv: h;j,d arranged with 
him that besides his pay as cornrnander-in-chief of the 
French troop!s in Italy, raised to 40,000 francs a month, he 
should have an a]low;).ri' c <A '/j,ooo francs a month for 
* extraordinary expenses,' and a palace at Milan for his 
residence. Thus he had more than /^33,ooo sterling a year 
during the rest of his stay in Italy. 

Unless he is greatly belied, these were not his only re- 
sources. Under the provisions of the Treaty of Amiens 
(signed on 27 March, 1802) the French troops were to be 
withdrawn from central and southern Italy. Murat was 
to visit Rome and Naples in order personally to direct the 
evacuation ol the Paj>al and Neapolitan territories. In 
March, Consalvi wrote him a most friendly letter, and the 
Sciarra Palace was beinf:^ prepared for his reception. Sud- 
denly it was announced that his visit must be deferred. 
He had hurried off to Paris, where he arrived on 23 March, 
remaining there till 6 April, when he started on his return 
journey to Milan, 

There is a mystery about this flying visit to Paris. It 
was explained at the time that it was due to anxiety about 
the health of Caroline, who was expecting soon to give birth 
to another child. But Caroline was well enough to preside 
as hostess at a splendid f^te which Murat gave to Napoleon 
at his country house, the chateau of Villiers-Neuilly, on 
the eve of his return journey. Another rumour, to which 
Consalvi alludes in a letter to the Legate Caprara, was that 
Murat had been accused of receiving considerable sums in 
order to induce him to secure appointments for various 
people in the new administration of the Italian Republic, 
and was summoned to Paris to explain his conduct. If 
this was the case, he must have succeeded in clearin};^ him- 



94 JOACHIM MURAT 

self of the charge and satisfying Napoleon, for the First 
Consul showed him nothing but good will. 

Passing through Milan, Murat reached Rome on i8 
April. The Concordat had just been signed, Murat was a 
persona grata with the Pope and his Secretary of State, and 
the Papal court gave him a brilliant reception. A guard 
of honour of fifty men was stationed at the Palazzo Sciarra. 
On the 19th there was a dinner at the Vatican, at which 
he was the chief guest. The cardinals, the foreign ambas- 
sadors, and the Roman nobles were all there to do him honour. 
He had a long interview with the Pope, and received as a 
present from him a cameo set in diamonds. On the 20th 
he went on to Naples. There the king presented him with 
a splendid sword, with a diamond-studded hilt, afterwards 
the weapon that Murat carried in many a famous cavalry 
charge. The reception at Naples, however, was a contrast 
to his experiences at Rome. Everything was perfectly 
correct and polite, but the Bourbon court showed no 
friendly cordiaHty. 

During this journey in Italy, while on his way back to 
Milan, Murat received the news that on 25 April Caroline 
had given birth to a daughter, who was christened Marie- 
Letizia-Josephine-Annunziade, the names of Napoleon's 
wife and mother, added to those that Caroline had received 
at baptism. Murat was anxious to be with his wife again, 
and the First Consul made no objection. He hurried north 
from Milan, and arrived in Paris on 25 May. He stayed 
in the capital till the following October. 

During this long stay in France, he kept in touch with 
his command in Italy by correspondence. In June he 
wrote to his brother Andre, telling him that he was send- 
ing his courier, Francois, to La Bastide, with a carriage, 
which was to bring to Paris his nieces, the two daughters 
of their elder brother, Pierre, for whose education he was 
going to provide. He asked Andre to send with them his 
son, Pierre Gaetan. ' It is time,' he wrote, ' for him to 
begin his education. He can go through it with Achille.' 
Some presents were sent by the courier, and there was 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN 95 

a message for the old mother. ' Tell my dearest mother 
that I always love her with all my heart, and that my happi- 
ness would be perfect if she could witness it and share it.' 
Probably he only half meant this. Jeanne Murat would 
have been out of her element in the splendid salons of the 
Hotel Thelusson, and was happier with Andre in the inn 
at La Bastide. 

One may anticipate events and note here the subsequent 
career of the three children, for whose education their 
uncle Joachim was providing. The girls had already been 
for some years at a country school, and Murat now sent them 
to Madame Campan's fashionable academy at St. Germain, 
where Hortense and Caroline had been pupils. The elder 
girl, Marie Antoinette, was married in 1808 to Prince 
Charles of HohenzoUem ; the younger, Clotilde Jeanne, 
was married in 1812 to the Duke of Carigliano. Andre's 
son, Pierre Gaetan, was only four years old when he was 
brought to Paris to be Achille's playfellow. As the Comte 
Pierre Murat, he was elected to the National Assembly 
by his native Department in 1830, and died at La Bastide 
in 1847. 

It was not till the autumn that Murat left Paris to return 
to Milan. Caroline went with him. They travelled by 
way of Lyons, and on 16 October, passed over the Mont 
Cenis. Napoleon, who had halted at the hospice of the 
St. Bernard during his march over the Alps, and seen the 
monks distributing bread and wine to his soldiers, had 
founded another Cistercian hospice on the Mont Cenis. 
Murat made a short halt there. He wrote to Napoleon of 
his reception by the * good monks of the auspice ' (his spell- 
ing sometimes breaks down over an unfamiliar word or 
name). They were devoted to their founder, they longed 
for Napoleon's portrait. He had promised to send it to 
them. He also suggested that some money should be 
sent to them. They entertained officers passing over 
the Mont Cenis, and even lent them money, which was 
not always repaid. They were at the end of their 
resources. At Turin the travellers were received by the 



96 JOACHIM MURAT 

civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Murat reported that 
with good management there would be no serious 
opposition to the projected annexation of Piedmont to 
France. 

At Milan, he was at first on the best of terms with Melzi 
and the Government of the Italian Republic. During this 
stay in Italy, he wrote frequently and at great length to 
Napoleon. In some of the letters he writes with remark- 
able frankness. He warns him that there is a consider- 
able party in Italy that is disappointed with the results 
of his policy. They had hoped for a united Italy, one 
Republic with Rome for its capital, and they saw in the 
First Consul a reactionist, who was not only maintaining 
the power of the King of Naples and the Pope, but set up 
a new kingdom in Tuscany, and, if he had kept the Cisalpine 
Republic in being, had put the aristocratic party in control 
of it, and given Venice to Austria, after destroying its old 
Republican institutions. Murat warns him that many 
Italians were thinking that it might be better to throw 
themselves into the hands of the Enghsh. 

He was the declared enemy of the men who thus clung 
to the old ideals of the Revolution. His standpoint was 
that of the Italian general, Lecchi, who, repudiating the 
suggestion that he was in sympathy with the Italian 
' Jacobins,' declared that he had benefited enough by one 
Revolution and did not want to see another. Under these 
circumstances, one would have expected Murat to remain 
on the best of terms with the Conservative and aristo- 
cratic Republican Melzi. But here the proud, dominating 
spirit of the soldier came into play. Murat would have 
been well pleased to reside at Milan as the French military 
governor of Lombardy. He chafed at his necessary sub- 
ordination to a mere civilian poUtician. He thought Melzi 
was too anxious to be everyone's friend, too gentle with 
the ultra-Liberals, whom Murat talked of as ' Jacobins ' 
and ' brigands.' His personal vanity made him think that 
the vice-president did not treat him with sufficient con- 
sideration. He complained of want of due respect being 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN 97 

shovm to him and his wife at public ceremonies, and even 
on social occasions, at balls and banquets. 

During the winter of 1802-03 there was continual 
friction, with repeated complaints of Melzi in Murat's 
letters to Napoleon, In December he had made a tour of 
inspection of the garrisons in Lombardy, accompanied by 
Caroline. Reviews in the morning, banquets and balls 
in the afternoon and evening, were the order of the day. 
When he returned to Milan the tension between him and 
the civil authorities began again. He felt so dissatisfied 
with his position that, when he read in the Moniteur of 
7 January, 1803 the news that General Leclerc, the 
husband of Pauline Bonaparte, had died of fever in San 
Domingo, he wrote to Napoleon (14 January) offering 
to take his place. The command of a small body of troops 
engaged in bush fighting against negro irregulars in a fever 
haunted West Indian island would be a poor exchange 
for life in a Milanese palace, but Murat was for the moment 
anxious to risk his life in ' that dangerous climate,' to use 
his own phrase. Napoleon, however, did not mean to lose 
another brother-in-law in San Domingo, and thought Murat 
would be more useful to him in Europe. 

In February there was a crisis at Milan. On 24 January 
Murat had written a long letter to Napoleon. He began 
by saying that, as the First Consul took no notice in his 
letters of any political news he sent him, he supposed he 
meant him to confine his attention to military reports. But 
nevertheless he must tell him of what was happening in 
Lombardy. Alarming rumours were being spread as to 
alleged disasters in San Domingo. Then there were reports, 
industriously circulated, that the Italian Republic was to 
be annexed to France, and that 30,000 French troops would 
soon arrive in Milan. At the same time a scandalous attack 
on France was being passed from hand to hand in the form 
of a poem, of which he enclosed a copy. The author was 
Captain Ceroni of the 3rd Italian Infantry. Before print- 
ing it, Ceroni had shown it in manuscript to Cicognara, a 
member of the Goimcil of State, and to General Theullie, 



98 JOACHIM MURAT 

who was regarded by Miirat as one of his enemies. The 
poem was dedicated to Cicognara. 

Ceroni's Hterary effort, published under the nom-de- 
guerre of Timone Cimbro, was a denunciation of the 
' betrayal ' of Venice to Austria, In exaggerated poetical 
kmguage it spoke of the French brigand who had come, 
' covered with royal blood,' crying out ' Liberty or death ! ' 
only to change liberty into tyranny, and called on the earth 
to open and swallow up the false benefactor and his 
treacherous gifts. Murat, without the slightest proof, 
asserted that Melzi encouraged these ' patriots,' and that 
he was in secret correspondence with Moreau, the First 
Consul's enemy. Things were in a dangerous condition, 
said Murat, the Neapolitan court was hostile. All the best 
men in Italy would rejoice at an end being put to this 
provisional state of things by annexation to France. 

Napoleon did not like poets and phrase-makers of any 
kind, least of all when they were soldiers on the active 
list, but he did not take any immediate action on Murat's 
report, nor was he alarmed by further letters, in which the 
general tried to persuade him that a revolutionary move- 
ment was being planned in Italy. The First Consul had 
received reassuring news from Melzi, and was anxious to 
keep things quiet in Lombardy. But on 27 February 
Murat wrote to him that, having learned that Ceroni was 
on the point of publishing ' another diatribe ' like the first, 
he had, after infonning Melzi of his intentions, sent General 
Lecchi to arrest Captain Ceroni and seize his papers. 
Amongst them were letters from Cicognara, Theulli^. and 
Magenta, the prefect of Bologna, all lending themselves 
to meanings hostile to the French domination in Italy. He 
sent on the papers to the First Consul. He further told 
him that Melzi was allowing the agitation the utmost 
freedom. At the theatre, a few days ago, the Conspiracy 
of the Pazzi had been played. The audience was an 
' assembly of brigands, whose applause was vociferous ' 
whenever a line could be given a meaning hostile to France 
and Napoleon. The next piece announced was The Death 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT MILAN 99 

of ('a;sar, ;md tlHtro would doubtless bo similar scenes. 
The patri(jts wore in oorrospondonco with England. An 
Englisliman had said lately that the London merchants wore 
closing up ;i]\ business with Italy, and that fifteen British 
ships of the, lino wore under orders for the Mediterranean. 

Napolorjn was now thoroughly angry. He wrote; to Murat : 
' I h?i.vo re;i,d attentively the papers you have sent me. You 
have done just what is right in arresting the officer who 
wrote such an infamous pamphlet.' On the same day, 
II March, ho wrote to Melzi : 'If your Ministers of the 
Interior and of the Police had done their duty, the authors 
of suf;h pamphlets would have been severely punished, 
and there would not have been the scandal of our seeing 
a French officer arresting a citizen of the Italian Repubhc' 
Melzi made a very weak reply, oxf;using his tolerance of 
the agitation. 

Napoleon sent an order tf> Melzi and Murat to see that 
Cicognara, Theullie, and Magenta wore arrested, and with 
Ceroni brought to trial before the Council of State. On 
II April the Council condemned Ceroni to be expelled 
from the army, and to be under police supervision for three 
years ; Cicognara and Theulli6 to loss of rank and employ- 
ment, and (;nforcf;d residence in a place to be named \jy 
the Government ; and Magenta to removal from his office, 
and loss of seniority in the civil service. Melzi, in presence 
of Murat's attacks, sent his resignation to the First Consul. 
But Napoleon thought that enough had been done to bring 
the ' patriots ' to reason, and was in a conciliatory frame 
of mind. He told Melzi that he mast remain in office, 
and wrote to Murat that ho must make friends with the 
Vice-President. He told him to send back by the 
messenger who brought the letter a reply that ' all is 
well between you and Melzi, that all quarrels are at an 
end, and that everything is going well in the Italian 
Republic' 

Murat acted on his orders, and there was a formal recon- 
ciliation. Caroline, who had kept f^ut of the quarrel, helped 
to make the pacification more real by tactfully using her 



100 JOACHIM MURAT 

influence to smooth the relations between her husband and 
the Vice-President. When on i6 May, 1803 her third 
child, a boy, was bom, she invited Melzi to act as godfather 
at the baptism, when the child received the names of 
Lucien Napoleon, in honour of two of his uncles, and Melzi's 
names — Charles Francis — as a tribute to the Vice-President. 
Indirectly the renewed outbreak of war between France 
and England in May 1803 helped to keep the peace between 
Murat and the civil authorities, for he had now to occupy 
himself with the active organisation of the military forces 
of northern and central Italy. He still broke out into 
complaints against the Milan government in his letters 
to Napoleon, and he had a fierce quarrel with one of his 
subordinates. General Gouvion St. Cyr. In a letter to 
Napoleon he said Saint C^a* was simply lying, but he was 
not surprised at anything he did, for he came from ' the 
Army of the Rhine, and all these gentlemen thought they 
were great personages ! {de grands cires — a poor misspelled 
pun that evaporates in the translation). The quarrel 
originated in St. Cyr reporting directly to Paris instead of 
to Murat's headquarters. St. Cyr was acting towards him, 
just as he had acted towards Brune. The affair is only 
worth noting as an indication of Murat's character and 
temper. 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS loi 



CHAPTER VII 

MURAT MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 
1803-1805 

IN August 1803 Murat was summoned to Paris. 
Napoleon was not only busy with plans for the 
invasion of England, but also engaged in the pre- 
liminaries of the proclamation of the Empire. He wanted 
to have the men of his inner circle at hand for eventualities. 
When Murat arrived in the capital on 23 August, he was 
still commander-in-chief of the French troops in Italy, 
and was not aware that he would not return to his post 
at Milan, and that a new and brilliant period of his career 
was opening before him. 

His last act at Milan had been to arrange, by order of 
Napoleon, that a division of the army of the Italian 
Republic, 6000 strong, should be sent into France under the 
orders of General Pino. In an official dispatch, Melzi 
expressed his satisfaction at a step that marked the 
solidarity of the two Republics of France and Italy, but 
Murat told how the Vice-President could not conceal his 
disappointment on receiving the order — ' he was sad, silent, 
with downcast looks.' It was a blow [to all hopes of 
the independence of the Italian Republic, a proof that 
Napoleon regarded Milan as practically the capital of a 
French Department. 

Until October, Murat's correspondence shows that he 
was still receiving reports from the garrisons of Italy, and 
directing its mihtary affairs by letter. In November 
he spent a fortnight in his native Department, at last ful- 
filling his repeated promises to revisit the old home. The 



102 JOACHIM MURAT 

elections for the Corps Legislatif had been fixed for 
the 23 Bnimaire (10 November). On 29 October, Chaptal, 
the Minister of the Interior, informed Murat that the 
First Consul had chosen him to preside at the meeting 
of the Electoral College of the Department of the Lot at 
Cahors. The Electoral College was the limited body of 
voters that chose the deputies to the Corps Legislatif, and 
the coming elections had a special importance, for the 
chief business of the new assembly would be the inaugura- 
tion of the Empire. Murat's mission to Cahors was the 
result of a friendly arrangement with Napoleon. 

At last, after twelve years of waiting, the aged Jeanne 
Murat welcomed her son at La Bastide. Caroline came 
with him, bringing her three children, to add to the joy of 
the old grandmother. The peasant proprietors and small 
farmers, who formed the family circle of friends at La 
Bastide, were dazzled with the sight of splendid horses 
and carriages and brilliantly uniformed equerries, but 
delighted to find that the great man. Napoleon's famous 
cavalry leader, the hero of Aboukir and Marengo, had 
forgotten no one, was ready to meet as equals the friends 
who had been his playfellows long ago, and anxious to 
know every one at La Bastide. 

On 10 November, when after a public welcome by 
the city authorities, who had raised triumphal arches in 
his honour, he presided at the meeting of the electors at 
Cahors, he began his speech by saying that, although he 
ought perhaps to forget all personal matters, and speak only 
of the important public act for which they had been called 
together, he could not help trying to express to them his 
pleasure at being once more, after years of absence, among 
the scenes of his boyhood, and in the city where he had 
begun his education. He assured them that throughout 
his career his thoughts had turned to his native Department 
and his old companions. The days spent among them 
would be among the happiest of his life, and he rejoiced 
at seeing old friends again, and making new friends among 
them. The speech was enthusiastically applauded. It 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 103 

was proposed that General Murat should be chosen as one 
of the four deputies of the Department. When the vote 
was taken it was found that he headed the list with 162 
votes out of a possible 164. ^ He proposed, and had 
elected as the representative of the Department in the 
Senate, Fesch, whom Pius VII had lately made a Cardinal. 

The First Consul, who was reorganizing the educational 
system of France, had just established a lycee at Cahors. 
Murat secured the best appointment on its staff for the 
Citizen Janvier, till then acting as tutor to his nephews 
at Paris. After his election he spent a few more days at 
La Bastide, and returned to Paris on 15 November. It 
is not certain that he ever saw his native place again. He 
may have had a passing sight of it five years later, when he 
was on his way to Spain as lieutenant-general of the 
Emperor. 

Napoleon did not send him back to Milan. On 15 
January, 1804, he was appointed Military Governor of 
Paris, and Commandant of the troops of the ist Military 
Division and of the National Guard. For the extra- 
ordinary expenses of his new post an allowance of 60,000 
francs was granted to him, and Caroline was given an 
annual payment of 60,000 more from the First Consul's 
Civil List. 

Murat, as Governor of Paris, made his town house, the 
stately Hotel Thelusson, his headquarters, and Caroline 
presided over a kind of semi-military court with a constant 
round of balls, banquets, and concerts. M. Frederic Masson, 
with his painstaking attention to details, has given an 
elaborate description of the splendours of Murat's palace. ^ 
Parisian society talked of them as a manifestation of the 
growing tendency to ostentation, extravagance, and luxury. 
They were the expression of Murat's Gascon tendency to 
exaggeration and self-assertion, the same side of his char- 

1 In the official return of the election he is thus described : — 

' Murat, Joachim, ne le 25 mars 1767, age de 37 ans, domicilie a Labal- 
tide (sic), mari6, ayant 3 enfants ; avant 1789 etudiant a TUmversite 
de Toulouse; depuis 1789 general en chef. Fortune personnelle : il paie 
8963 de contributions ; il a obtenu 162 suffrages sur 164. 

2 NapoUon et sa Famille, vol. ii., pp. 201, etc. 



104 JOACHIM MURAT 

acter that made him later on, as the leader of the imperial 
cavalry, invent new uniforms for his personal use, and ride 
into battle \vith a leopard skin saddle-cloth, red morroco 
boots, a tunic stiff with gold embroidery, a pelisse of costly 
furs, a cap plumed with ostrich feathers held by a jewelled 
brooch, a diamond hilted sabre, and gold on his spurs and 
the bit of his charger. Here, in the Hotel Thelusson, 
there was the same unmeasured display of brilliant colour 
and costly material. There was the series of drawdng- 
rooms opening off each other, the first furnished and 
upholstered with blue velvet, and a lavish display of gold 
in embroidery, fringes, tassels, gilded console tables, with 
marble statues holding up golden candelabra, mirrors in 
massive gilded frames, and Turkish carpets. Then three 
other salons, each \nth its owti scheme of colour, bronzes 
and marbles giving an air of solid wealth to relieve the 
mere display of silk, velvet, gilding, and embroiderJ^ In 
the \\dnter evenings the great salons were ablaze with wax 
lights, and bright with the uniforms of officers and the 
costumes of ladies who came to pay court to the sister of 
Napoleon, soon to be a princess. In the summer the chateau 
of ViUiers was the scene of equally brilliant gatherings. 

Murat had not held his court at the Hotel Thelusson for 
many weeks when he found himself forced to choose 
between being an accomplice in a crime or bidding fare- 
well to all his growing prosperity. That he chose the 
former alternative, and was to some extent involved in 
Napoleon's culpabiHty in the affair of the Duke d'Enghien, 
is I think so certain, that only partisans of Murat can 
seriously deny it. The only question is as to the extent 
to which he was involved in the tragedy. 

To say that he was an instigator of, and a willing partici- 
pator in the crime is most certainly to do him wrong. It 
is a calumny which had its origin in the gossip of the time. 
Madame de Remusat echoes it when she writes of Murat : 
* His part in this affair was odious. He it was who urged 
Napoleon on, repeating to him that his clemency would be 
taken for weakness, and that the Jacobins would be 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 105 

furious.' But Murat had no respect for the opinion of the 
' Jacobins ' in Italy, and still less in France, and Napoleon 
needed no urging. 

Murat's fault was that he did not venture to make an 
effective resistance, and after a half-hearted opposition 
found a way of complying with orders that he had at 
first expressed his determination to disregard. Before 
D'Enghien was arrested at Ettenheim by a raid across 
the frontier of a foreign state, Murat knew of the project. 
He had been confidentially informed of it by the First 
Consul. He then understood that the Bourbon prince 
would have a fair trial before his peers, the miUtary members 
of the Senate. He expected to be one of the tribunal, 
and even violated his pledge of secrecy by asking a brother 
general if he would act with him in the trial. 

It was undoubtedly a shock to him when, after the 
arrest of the duke, he received a communication from the 
First Consul, dated ' 29 Ventose, an XII ' (20 March, 1804), 
informing him that the prisoner was to be tried by court 
martial at Vincennes, and that he was to see to this order 
being carried out. He turned to his friend Agar, who was 
with him, and said : * Bonaparte wants to put a stain on 
my coat, but he won't succeed in doing so.' 

It was early in the day. He sent for his carriage and 
drove to Malmaison, where there was a stormy interview 
with the First Consul. Bonaparte put an end to the 
discussion by saying, ' If you will not execute my orders I 
shall send you back to your mountains of Quercy.' This 
was the critical moment. A stronger man than Murat 
would have replied that he was ready to disappear into 
the obscurity of La Bastide rather than obey such orders. 
He should have insisted on D'Enghien having a fair trial. 
He might have further pressed for a pledge that even his 
condemnation should be followed by a graceful act of 
mercy. But he did not mean to sacrifice his brilliant 
prospects. He went away depressed, and troubled — 
bouleverse, to use Agar's expression; he was almost ill 
when he returned to the Hotel Thelusson. But the 



io6 JOACHIM MURAT 

moment to decide^ had passed. Henceforth there was no 
strong resolve, but only a feeble struggle to save his 
conscience by diminishing his direct responsibility. 

Cesar Berthier, his chief of the staff, was waiting for him 
and asked for the list of the court martial. Murat asked 
him why he was moving in the matter. He had given him 
no orders, and had said nothing about it. Cesar replied 
that he had been sent by his brother, the Minister of War. 
' Well,' replied Murat, ' tell your brother that I have just 
seen the First Consul, that I have told him I don't want to 
nominate the court martial, and that I will not do so.' 
Then Alexander Berthier himself arrived, but Murat was 
still struggling to escape responsibility. ' No, I will not 
nominate the court martial,' he said ; ' let Bonaparte do 
so if he likes.' 

Alexander Berthier went to Napoleon, and the result was 
that about seven in the evening Savary, the colonel of 
the Consular Gendarmerie, arrived at the Hotel Thelusson 
with a letter from Napoleon, which was an ultimatum. 
Without any allusion to his earlier remonstrances, it ordered 
Murat to appoint the court martial, suggesting the names ; 
directed him to send a detachment of gendarmerie to 
garrison the chateau of Vincennes and ' execute the 
sentence,' and, so that there might be no mistake, went on 
to add words that proved that D'Enghien's case was already 
judged and his death decided upon : — 

' Let the members of the court martial understand that it 
must complete its proceedings during the night, and order that 
the sentence, if, as I cannot doubt, it is a condemnation to death, 
shall be executed immediately, and the body of the condemned 
buried in one of the courtyards of the fort.' 

A concluding paragraph informed him that Savary would 
carry out his orders. 

* ' Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood for the good or evil side ; 
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, 
Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right. 
And the choice goes by for ever 'twixt the darkness and the light.' 

LOWEIX 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 107 

Murat still tried to avoid taking any action. He dis- 
missed Savary with the words : ' You have the First 
Consul's orders, sir, mine are not necessary to you, I 
have nothing to say to you.' Then Cesar Berthier arrived 
with a draft order constituting the court martial, which 
had been prepared at the War Office. At first Murat 
refused to sign it, but (to quote Agar's narrative, which we 
may take to be Murat's statement of his case) ' his chief 
of the staff (Cesar Berthier) pointed out to him that Bona- 
parte had in reality nominated the court martial as he 
had himself desired, for the names of its members were 
indicated by him (Bonaparte) ; that his own signature as 
Governor of Paris was nothing more than a formality, 
but a formality so necessary that he could not refuse it, 
without openly declaring war against the Government, 
and rendering inevitable a rupture, after which any recon- 
ciliation between his brother-in-law and himself would be 
impossible.' Murat gave way to this argument and signed 
the order. 

After he had thus weakly yielded, several members of 
the court, who had been warned by Alexander Berthier, 
called at the Hotel Thelusson to ask for further instructions. 
Murat was annoyed at being thus forced to take further 
part in the ugly affair. He confined himself to telling 
them to go at once to Vincennes. 

There in the darkness of the night between 20 and 21 
March the deed of darkness was done. When D'Enghien 
had been huddled into his nameless grave in the ditch, 
Murat did not refuse his share of the blood money. With 
Savary and other accomplices in the tragedy he received 
a grant of 100,000 francs from the Civil List. He had 
his share in the reward, and cannot be wholly absolved 
from his share in guilt of the tragedy, which cunning 
Fouche described in a phrase that has become proverbial : 
' It was worse than a crime. It was a mistake.' 

In one way only he could perhaps have averted this 
blundering crime. If he had had the courage to declare 
that, rather than have any part direct or indirect in it. 



io8 JOACHIM MURAT 

he would resign his Governorship of Paris, Napoleon might 
have hesitated to proceed to extremities. But he might 
have persisted and broken Murat's career. Murat did not 
take the risk. It may be true that when he heard that 
the sentence had been executed he burst into tears, for he 
was of a kindly, emotional character. It is certain that, 
with his easy-going conscience, he seriously thought that 
his abstention from direct part in the court martial saved 
him from any responsibility. Before his own judges at 
Pizzo he called God to witness that he had no part in the 
crime, and there is no need to suppose that he did not speak 
sincerely. 

It is distinctly to his credit that he did his best to prevent 
further executions. When Napoleon was taking advantage 
of the Royalist plot to accuse every possible opponent of 
complicity in it, Murat used his influence to save more 
than one of the accused, and used it successfully. He 
even intervened in favour of Cadoudal, though without 
success. While trying, with Caroline's help, to secure the 
pardon of the Prince de Polignac and the Marquis de 
Riviere, he had the boldness to write to the First Consul in 
the hope of saving even Cadoudal : — 

' George Cadoudal is guilty. But in a state of civil war one 
cannot talk of crimes in the strict legal sense. In the final 
result only circumstances determine who is guilty. Crimes 
committed in a time of crisis belong to the sphere of poh- 
tics, not law. You are yourself a proof of what I assert. . . . 
George is no doubt very guilty, but he defended a cause 
that he believed to be just. ... As you have pardoned MM. 
de Polignac and de Riviere, why not do so in George's case ? 
He is a man of honour and of strong character. If you will 
pardon him I wiU make him my aide-de-camp, and answer 
for him with my head.' 

One wishes he had shown such courage in the case of 
D'Enghien. Perhaps there was a reaction from his weak- 
ness. He was certainly greatly agitated at reports that 
represented him as having pressed for the death of the 
young duke while others were trying to save him. He 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 109 

heard that Savary and his agents were helping to spread 
this false report, and in his indignation he wrote to the 
First Consul a letter complaining of these calumnies, offering 
to resign his Governorship, and ending with an allusion to 
Bonaparte's words at Malmaison : — 

' I shall retire to my mountains of Quercy. Then people may 
freely circulate the story that Madame Bonaparte threw herself 
at your feet to obtain the pardon of the Duke d'Enghien, and 
that it was I that insisted on his death.' 

Bonaparte sent for him and told him he was attaching 
too much importance to malicious gossip, and then, playing 
upon Murat's feelings as well as his ambitions, appealed 
to him * not to desert his general, his friend, his brother- 
in-law at a moment when Royalist daggers were being 
drawn against him.' It was after this reconciliation that 
he gratified Murat with the pardon of De Polignac and 
De Riviere. 

The First Consul had taken advantage of the abortive 
plot to destroy or banish every possible rival or opponent 
to his plans. The proscribed had been driven into exile 
or sent as prisoners to the swamps of Cayenne. 

When all chance of opposition had thus been removed, 
the Empire was proclaimed by a plebiscite and a vote of the 
Senate on 18 May, 1804. Murat had been naturally 
a zealous promoter of the project. It was he who in the 
Corps Legislatif had unveiled the statue of Napoleon as 
the law-giver of France, and spoken of the best hope of the 
country lying in the perpetuation of his wise and fortunate 
rule. As the Emperor's brother-in-law he could safely 
count on a rapid accumulation of honours and wealth. 
And he was not disappointed. 

When the Marshalate was inaugurated, he was among 
the first to receive the new rank, and when the list of 
precedence among the marshals was issued his name stood 
second on it. Only Berthier, Napoleon's trusted chief of 
the staff, through whom he gave his orders to his armies, 
stood before Murat. Below him on the Hst were men who 



no JOACHIM MURAT 

had a far more brilliant record of service and command 
in the field, for Murat's most important campaigns were 
yet to come, and so far his record of active service included 
only some minor operations with the army of the north, 
the campaign of Italy (1796), Egypt and Syria, and the 
campaign of Marengo. Lannes, Massena, Ney, and others 
who were placed below him had fought more battles, but 
then they had not married a Bonaparte. 

He was given the decoration of the Grand Eagle of the 
Legion of Honour, and the honorary title of Grand Admiral 
of France. This carried with it no authority over the 
navy, but was a courtly and ceremonial dignity, that gave 
him the second place among the great officers of the Empire — 
only Joseph Bonaparte standing before him. On occasions 
of high ceremony he would appear as Grand Admiral in 
the inner circle near the Emperor, wearing a costume 
designed by the artist David, hose and doublet, mantle, 
plumed cap, and gold sheathed court sword. The Grand 
Admiralty also gave him a place in the Senate. 

One more coveted step in rank was at first denied him, 
but not for long. The decree of the Senate establishing 
the Empire had given to Napoleon's brothers, Joseph, 
Lucien, and Louis, the title of Princes of the Empire, and 
their wives were thus raised to the rank of princesses. At 
the State dinner at St. Cloud on the evening of 18 May, 
Caroline, hearing her sisters announced and addressed by 
their new title, while she was still mere ' Madame Murat,' 
burst into tears of angry disappointment. Next morning 
Napoleon reproached her with making a scene at the dinner 
table, and there was a lively altercation between brother 
and sister. ' To listen to you,' said Napoleon, ' one would 
think I had robbed you of the inheritance of the late king, 
our father.' Caroline's reply to the sarcasm was to fall 
down fainting. But she had gained her point. On 20 May 
the Moniteur announced that under the new regime of 
the Empire, French princes and princesses were to have the 
style of ' Imperial Highness,' and the Emperor's sisters 
were to have the same title. If Caroline was to be a princess 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS iii 

her husband might feel slighted if he were not a prince, 
so an imperial decree settled this point, but the promotion 
to princely rank was due to his marriage as well as his 
services. ' We have desired,' said the Emperor, ' not 
only to recognise the services which General Murat has 
rendered to the country, and the particular attachment 
to our person which he has shown in all the circumstances 
of his Ufe, but also to render what is due to the dignity of 
our crown, in raising to the rank of a prince one who is so 
closely attached to us by ties of blood.' 

With these new honours there came new sources of 
revenue for the Murats. M. Frederic Masson reckons up 
the new marshal's official income, and one may thus tabulate 
his gains : — 

As Grand Admiral of the Empire 

As Senator ..... 

Grand Cross of the Legion of the Honour 

As Marshal of France 

As Governor of Paris 

As Commandant of the ist Military Division 12,000 

Total pay and salaries 501,000 
Allowances. — Office expenses . 144,000 ^ 

Lodging . . 10,000 [ 169,000 

Forage . . 15,000 J 



333,000 


francs, 


36,000 




' 20,000 




40,000 




60,000 




Q 12,000 





Grand total 670,000 francs. 

This was Murat's official income. There was in addi- 
tion the revenue from his investments, such as the 32,000 
francs annual rental of profits from the La Motte Sainte 
Heraye estate. Then Caroline had a revenue of 240,000 
francs allowed to her, as a princess of the imperial family, 
from Napoleon's Civil List. M. Masson is probably not 
exaggerating when he estimates the total income of the 
Murats in the first year of the Empire at about a million 
and a half of francs. 

Caroline also received presents from her imperial brother, 



112 JOACHIM MURAT 

200,000 francs as a New Year's gift, on the evening of 
31 December, 1S04, and when she gave birth to her 
second daughter, Louise Juhe CaroHne, on the following 
22 March, the palace of the El>-see. The Emperor provided 
in various sums the total amount of 970,000 francs, which 
was required to buy out the actual tenants, for the Elysee, 
during the Revolution, had passed into private hands. Its 
grounds had been converted into a garden where concerts 
were given, and wooden booths and shops had been erected 
against its facade. It was only after some twelve months 
that Caroline could take possession of it — all this time 
was needed to secure the removal of its occupants, compen- 
sating them for disturbance, and to restore the palace and 
gardens to their original condition. 

In the fetes and ceremonies of the coronation in December 
1804, Murat, in his twofold capacity of Governor of Paris 
and Grand Admiral of France, took a prominent part. As 
commander of the troops in Paris he was responsible for 
the elaborate mihtary display, and the equally elaborate 
precautions of the great day. In the procession to the 
choir of Notre Dame, where Pius VII waited at the high 
altar to cro\Mi the Emperor, Murat, as Grand Admiral, 
carried her crowTi in front of Josephine. Caroline was one 
of the sister princesses who bore up her train. When the 
city of Paris gave a banquet to the Emperor and Empress, 
it was Murat who, as governor of the capital, received their 
Majesties on the steps of the Hotel de Ville. He was the 
most prominent llgure among the marshals at the fete they 
gave to Josephine at the Opera. ^ 

After the coronation Napoleon went to Milan to assume 

the Iron CroNVTi of Lombardy, for the Italian Republic had 

been transformed into the kingdom of Italy. He had 

thought for a while of giving this tributary cro\\Ti to Murat, 

but hesitated, and Imally abandoned the idea. He was not 

* Soon after the coronation, Napoleon gave Mumt the pleasure of trans- 
mitting to his brother Andri> the star of the Legion of Honour. Later, 
the Emperor gave the honest farmer of La Bastide the rank of a count of 
the Empire. Rlurat pro\-ided him with the means of building himself a 
country house, that became the nucleus of the chateau of La Bastide 
Murat. 



MITJTARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 113 

sure that the memories of troubles belonging to his brother- 
in-law's L'ist stay at Milan would li(ilp to an auspicious 
reign. During this absence from Paris, he had occasion 
to warn Murat that he mast not trench upon his own pre- 
rogatives even in minor matters. Murnt, as Governor of 
Paris, had held a review at the Tuileries, in which some 
battalions of the newly formed Imperial Guard were in line. 
Napoleon wrote to him that only the Emperor was to hold 
reviews and inspections on the Place du Carrousel. The 
Governor of Paris must choose for his reviews the Champ 
de Mars, or the Champs Elys6es, and the Guard must not 
appear at them. It would be better, he thought, to hav(; 
manoeuvres instead of reviews. In this case he might have 
some battalions of the Guard under his orders. 

On his return from Italy Napol(ion devot(;d his atten- 
tion chiefly to the great project for the invasion of England, 
the formation of the Armee d'Angleterre, with its head- 
quarters at Boulogne, the assembling of the flotilla that 
was to transport it across the Channel, and the naval com- 
binations that were to give him command of the narrow 
seas for the brief interval that he judged sufficient for the 
attempt. Murat was to command the cavalry of the 
invading army, and, accompanied by Caroline, he paid more 
than one visit of inspection to the camps of the north coast. 
But Napoleon's admirals failed to give him the promised 
command of the Channel, and English subsidies helped 
Austria to arm, and in 1805 brought a new coalition into 
being against the Empire — England, Sweden, Austria, and 
Russia being the four parties to the combination. 

When it became evident that the invasion scheme could 
not be realized, and that the Grand Army, organized on 
the shores of the Channel, would, soon have to march across 
the Rhine to meet Austrians and Russians in south Germany 
and on the Danube, Napoleon sent Murat and Bertrand on 
a flying visit to the probable scene of the operations. Ber- 
trand's mission was to secure the adhesion of the Elector 
of Bavaria to the French side, with promises of advantages 
after the war, and arguments that the winning side would 



114 JOACHIM MURAT 

be that of Napoleon. Murat's business was to make a 
rapid study of the ground, and especially of the road com- 
munications between Rhine and Danube. It says some- 
thing for Napoleon's opinion of his military capacity and 
judgment that he chose him for such an errand. 

Travelling in a post-chaise with passports made out in the 
name of ' Colonel de Beaumont/ Murat started on August 
25, 1805, and was back at Strasburg by the middle of Septem- 
ber, having in the meanwhile covered many hundred miles 
on the roads of south Germany, mostly in Bavarian terri- 
tory. His route was from Paris to Mayence, then one of 
the French Rhine fortresses, thence by Wurzburg and Bam- 
berg towards the frontier of Bohemia, studying the pos- 
sibilities of a march on Prague, and reading in his post- 
chaise the record of Marshal de Belleisle's campaign, the 
story of the victorious French invasion of Bohemia in 1741, 
which Napoleon had told him to take with him. Turning 
southwards, as he approached the Austrian frontier, he 
travelled by Nuremberg to the Danube at Ratisbon, then 
followed the course of the great river eastwards to the 
frontier, and its junction with the river Inn at Passau. 
From Passau he followed the lower course of the Inn up 
stream, then turned west to Munich, drove on to Ulm, 
soon to be world-famous, examined the roads of the Black 
Forest, and reached Strasburg in the middle of September, 
whence he sent his report to Napoleon. He had been over 
much of the ground on which he was to direct the marches 
of his cavalry corps in the coming struggle. 

While Murat's post-chaise was rattling over the roads of 
Bavaria the Boulogne camps had broken up, and when he 
reached Strasburg the Grand Army was marching in parallel 
columns to various points along the Rhine. Murat's part 
in the coming campaign had been assigned to him, and it 
gave him brilliant opportunities of distinction. He was to 
be Grand maUre de la Cavalerie a title suggested to 
Napoleon by the old Roman custom that placed beside the 
Imperator the general commanding in chief, a Magister 
equitum or ' Master of the Horse,' to command the cavalry. 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 115 

It is curious to see this aping of the classical empire coming 
out even in minor details. Napoleon at this time still 
kept on his coins the old device ' Republique Fran^aise ' on 
the reverse, while on the obverse appeared his medallion 
portrait as ' Empereur des Frangais,' just as the Csesars 
had affected to maintain Republican forms under the Roman 
Empire. 

In the organization of the imperial armies, each army 
corps included a division or brigade of three or four regi- 
ments of light cavalry. This mounted force was sufficient 
for scouting, outpost, and advanced-guard work, but not 
intended for shock tactics in the field. The rest of the 
cavalry was united in a corps of several divisions under 
the name of the ' cavalry reserve.' We would now call it 
the independent cavalry of the army. It was intended to 
be employed first in covering the main advance, and then 
the whole of it, or several divisions, would be temporarily 
attached to whichever group of army corps was engaged 
in a movement that would end in a decisive battle. The 
organization of the reserve cavalry under Murat's com- 
mand in 1805, was as follows : — 

Heavy cavalry — General Nansouty's Division :— - 
Four regiments of cuirassiers. 
Two regiments of carbineers. 
General d'Hautpoul's Division : — 

Four regiments of cuirassiers. 
Dragoons — three divisions of six regiments each, and a 
division of unmounted dragoons organized in battalions — 
ist Division. General Klein. 
2nd Division. General Beaumont. 
3rd Division. General Walther. 
4th Division. General Bourcier (eight battalions). 
Light cavalry — General Milhaud's Division : — 

Four regiments of chasseurs and hussars. 

Murat had thus under his command thirty-two regiments 
of cavalry and eight battalions of unmounted dragoons, 
22,000 men, and 14,000 horses. The large proportion of 



ii6 JOACHIM MURAT 

unmounted men appears to have been the result of the 
cavalry corps being originally formed for the invasion for 
England, an operation in which it would not be possible 
to transport a large number of horses across the Channel. 

The proportion of horse artillery was very small for 
such a large body of mounted troops. Murat had in all 
only twenty-four guns. Three were assigned to each of the 
cuirassier divisions, and two to each division of mounted 
dragoons, and to Milhaud's light cavalry. This made up 
a total of only fourteen horse artillery guns. Ten heavier 
pieces were attached to Bourcier's dismounted division 
of dragoons. 

Murat asked for and secured as his chief of the staff 
General Belliard. He belonged to one of the old feudal 
families of Poitou, and before the Revolution had been 
known as the Comte de Belliard. He was a young man 
of twenty when the Bastille was stormed, and he then 
threw in his lot with the Revolution, dropped his title, 
and the * de ' before his name, and in 1791 volunteered 
for the army, and was soon elected captain by his com- 
rades. He distinguished himself in the Army of the North, 
and was serving on Dumouriez's staff, when Murat was 
a chef d'escadron in Landrieux's chasseurs. He was staff 
officer to Hoche on the Rhine, and was then transferred 
to the army of Italy, and in the campaign of 1796, and on 
the field of Areola he was promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general by Bonaparte. After serving with Joubert in the 
Tyrol, he went to Egypt, and accompanied Dessaix in his 
pursuit of the Mamelukes up the Nile to the First Cataract 
at Assouan. He was then governor of Cairo, and it was 
there he became one of Murat's friends. ^ 

Whilst his cavalr}'^ divisions were moving towards the 
Rhine, Murat had a busy time at Strasburg. By an order, 
dated 30 August, Napoleon had given him the title of 
' Lieutenant-General of the Emperor commanding in his 

^ Belliard has a statue at Brussels, in the Rue Royale, looking out 
upon the Pare. This commemorates his services to Belgium, whose army 
he organized, after the constitution of the new kingdom. He died at 
Brussels in January 1832. 



MILITARY GOVERNOR OF PARIS 117 

absence,' and directed him to make Strasburg his head- 
quarters, superintend the concentration of the various 
corps at the points where they were to cross the Rhine, 
make the necessary preparations for their passage over 
the river, see to the armament of the fortresses, and the 
collection of supplies for the field armies, and obtain infor- 
mation as to the enemy's preparations and movements. 
This information was supplied by the host of French agents 
scattered through southern Germany. It was collected 
and sifted by Murat's staff, and day after day a summarised 
report was sent on to the Emperor, with letters reporting 
the arrival of troops on the river, the construction of 
bridges of boats, the work in the Rhine fortresses, and the 
collection of supplies. As soon as Murat heard from 
Munich that the Austrian vanguard was in Bavaria, he 
sent the ist Hussars, and a brigade of dragoons across the 
Rhine to watch the roads of the Black Forest, and push 
patrols forward to the lUer. 

On 25 September the 5th corps under Lannes, the 
Imperial Guard, and the greater part of the cavalry were 
concentrated about Strasburg and Kehl. Bemadotte with 
the 1st corps was over the Rhine, moving by Frankfurt 
on Wurtzburg ; Marmont with the 2nd corps was near 
Mayence ; Davout with the 3rd opposite Mannheim ; 
Soult with the 4th near Spires ; Ney with the 6th near 
Maxau ready to cross the floating bridges and occupy 
Carlsruhe. That day the mass of the cavalry reserve had 
crossed the Rhine and begun its march through the Black 
Forest. Next day, 26 September, Napoleon reached 
Strasburg. He had every reason to be pleased with the 
work his lieutenant had done. There was a review of the 
great mass of troops assembled round the city, and Murat 
left Strasburg to direct the operations of the cavalry corps. 

He was about to launch out with Napoleon on that 
marvellous career of victory, of which the stages were Ulm, 
Austerlitz, Jena, and Auerstadt, Eylau, and Friedland ; on 
many a field from the Rhine to the Danube and the Niemen 
he was to revel in the ' rapture of the strife,' the over- 



ii8 JOACHIM MURAT 

whelming rush to victory, guiding the h\'ing tide of horses 
and men, sweeping down all opposition, leaving the wreck- 
age of the battle behind, driving the broken enemy before 
it, and returning ^^dth the trophies of captured guns and 
standards. A ducal coronet and a kingly crown were to 
be his rewards, and then Nemesis was waiting for him, the 
fate to which he had helped to send the young Bourbon 
Prince of Enghien. The firing party in the obscure Cala- 
brian town was but ten years away in the future on that 
September day in 1805, when Murat watched his splendid 
squadrons of steel clad cuirassiers riding over the bridge of 
Kehl, and looked forward only to victory and a crown. 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 119 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 
1805 

THE Austrians had given Napoleon the chance of 
striking a decisive blow at the very outset of the 
war. Anxious to force neutrality on Bavaria, 
they had not waited either to be joined by their Russian 
allies or to bring all their own forces into the field. Their 
Field-Marshal Mack, who had an undeserved reputation 
for being a great strategist and tactician, was sent forward 
across the Inn with 60,000 men and overran Bavaria. By 
the time that the heads of Napoleon's columns were on the 
Rhine, Mack's army was on the line of the lUer, fronting 
the eastern outlets from the Black Forest, with his right 
at Ulm in Wiirtemberg, at the confluence of the Iller and 
the upper Danube. ^ 

Himself a slave of tradition and routine, Mack had not 
the slightest doubt that the French Emperor would begin 
the campaign, as French generals had begun such campaigns 
during more than a century, by an advance from the 
middle Rhine through the defiles of the Black Forest. It 
was Murat's mission in the first days of the advance to 
confirm Mack in this opinion, and accordingly he pushed 
his cavalry over the low hills and through the pine woods 
of Baden, driving back the Austrian cavalry whom he 
found watching the hill roads on the eastern slope of the 
Forest. Murat did not force them back too quickly, and 
the only engagements were mere skirmishes. Having 
formed a screen east of the Forest, he pushed out detach- 

* See Map p. 120, Campaign of Ulm. 



120 JOACHIM MURAT 

ments to his left to extend the screen northwards, and 
prevent any stray Austrian patrol discovering what was 
really going on in those first days of October in the region 
of hill country between the north end of the Black Forest 
and the valley of the Neckar. 

But Mack feared nothing from that direction. He felt 
sure that Napoleon and the Grand Army were marching 
through the Forest defiles directly in rear of the swarms 
of cuirassiers, dragoons, and chasseurs that were steadily 
pushing back his own mounted troops. The mass of hostile 
horsemen swept forward clearing the country north of the 
upper Danube, and effectually screening from the Austrian 
commander the fact that Napoleon with the troops con- 
centrated at Strasburg (the Guard and Lannes' corps), instead 
of moving directly eastward over the Forest hills, had 
swung round behind them, and with Ney's corps from 
Maxau was marching by Pforzheim and Stuttgart on his 
right, while, further north, Davofit and Soult were marching 
across the upper Neckar valley, and Marmont and Bema- 
dotte were converging on Wiirzburg, and the Bavarians 
had been called up from Bamberg to join the French left 
column. Seven army corps were executing a great con- 
verging movement that would bring the heads of their 
columns, within a week, to the crossings of the Danube 
below Ulm, cutting off Mack from his communications 
and supports, and bringing more than twofold odds against 
him. 

As he himself afterwards said, ' He was in a dream.' 
Suddenly on 5 October he was roused from his dreams 
by rumours that the country to the north-east of Ulm 
was full of huge columns of French troops, pressing forward 
towards the Danube by forced marches, and that Napoleon 
with the Imperial Guard had passed through Stuttgart. 
He drew in his troops from the line of the river Iller, and 
concentrated them about Ulm. 

Murat having swept the Austrian advanced cavalry 
posts back from the eastern outlets of the Black Forest 
had, by Napoleon's orders, pushed forward Bourcier's 




I 

i5 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 121 

battalions of dismounted dragoons with ten guns and a 
few mounted men directly towards Ulm, and concentrating 
all the rest of his force to the left, marched by Pforzheim 
to join the French right, which was under the Emperor's 
direct command. 

The cuirassier division of D'Hautpoul was detached to 
act with the Imperial Guard and the corps of Lannes 
under Napoleon ; Murat with the rest of the cavalry was to 
cover the flank-march to the Danube. Ne3/s 6th corps, 
20,000 strong, was placed temporarily under his orders. 
It was to take post on the Danube on the extreme right 
of the army as it passed the river, and form as it were a 
pivot round which the other corps swung to the east of 
Ulm. To Murat the Emperor wrote : * You must flank 
all my march, which is a delicate operation, an oblique 
advance to the Danube. If the enemy means to take the 
offensive, I must be warned in time to adopt a decision 
without being forced to take the one that will suit his 
views.' Murat had complained that his horses were 
becoming tired with the forced march and continual patrol 
and reconnoitring work. Napoleon told him to requisition 
horses as remounts wherever he could find them. * What 
is important for me,' he wrote, ' is to have news. Send 
out agents and spies, and above all make prisoners. Spare 
the horses which are out of condition, by using for recon- 
naissances only those that are strong and in good condition.' 

On the 6 October the heads of all the columns were 
close up to the Danube, and Murat was directed to pass his 
cavalry across the river and clear the way for the march 
against the Austrian rear. There was no longer need of 
screening the movement. The fighting was about to begin. 
Early on the 7th he reached the left bank opposite Donau- 
werth, with Klein, Beaumont, and Walther's brigades of 
dragoons. The bridge had been destroyed by an Austrian 
detachment holding the town. Soult's corps was on the 
riverside with its artillery in action against Austrians- 
Murat with Walther's dragoons rode up the bank to the 
bridge of Miinster where he found Vandamme's division 



122 JOACHIM MURAT 

of Lannes' corps crossing. He ordered the infantry to 
clear the bridge and make way for his horsemen. Then he 
galloped towards Donauwerth in the hope of cutting off 
the retreat of the Austrian detachment. He fomid them 
already retiring eastwanls, and followed them up. At 
Rain they crossed the Lech and bnrned the wooden bridge 
behind them. KTiirat forded the river above the to\Mi, 
routed in a wild charge 600 Austrian cavalry, occupied Rain, 
and then leaving Walther's Dragoons to watch the line 
of the Lech, hurried back to rejoin the rest of his cavalry 
which was now crossing at Donauwerth. 

On the 8th his horsemen headed the advance along the 
roads by the south bank of the Danube towards Ulm 
and the Iller valley. Ney's corps was on his right on the 
Danube, Lannes immediately in support of him. As soon 
as he found that the French had reached the Danube, 
Mack had decided to move out of Ulm, and fall upon them 
while they were engaged in crossing the river. His 
advanced guard under General Auffenberg (eight battalions 
and thirteen squadrons) had reached the town of Wer- 
tingen early on the 8th, but Mack had discovered that 
the French were already in force on the south bank and 
that he was too late. Hesitating what course to take, he 
left Auffenberg isolated at Wertingen. 

Murat was marching that day by the Donauwerth- 
Wertingen road with fourteen of liis cavalry regiments, 
and some horse artillery guns with him, and Oudinot's 
grenadier division, forming the head of Lannes' corps, 
close behind him. In the afternoon his advanced patrols 
came in touch ^^^th Auffenberg's outposts. With a whole 
corps d'armec following him up Murat decided on a brisk 
attack, and the result was the battle of Wertingen, the 
first serious fight of the Ulm campaign, and the first battle 
that was all Murat 's o^^^l. It was a brilliant success. 
Two regiments of his hussars drove in the Austrian out- 
posts in headlong confusion. Auffenberg and his olficers 
were dining when the firing told them they were attacked. 

They hurriedly got their men into line along the little 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 123 

river Sczam. Klein's drag(Km brigade forded the stream 
above the town. Murat's aide-de-camp, Exelmans, after- 
wards a famous cavalry general, dismounted two regiments 
of dragoons, and led them across a narrow footbridge on 
the other side of it. Colonel Maupetit with the 9th 
Dragoons charged through the streets of Wertingen driving 
the Austrians out. Bey(jnd the town his charge was stopped 
by the fire of the Austrian infantry in a line of squares, 
and he was badly wounded. Murat now came into action 
leading Klein's dragoons and the loth Hussars in repeated 
charges against the infantry squares, and the Austrian 
cavalry. The cavalry were routed, but the infantry held 
their own till Oudinot's grenadiers came into action. Then 
square after square broke, and the Austrians fled into the 
woods to the west of Wertingen. Murat's trophies were 
eight standards, ten cannon, and 2500 prisoners. 

He wrote a hurried report of his success, and sent 
Exelmans with his letter and the captured flags to report 
to the Emperor. Napoleon gave Exelmans the Grand Cross 
of the Legion of Honour, and sent him back to Murat with 
a letter of hearty congratulations and generous praise. 
When the first impression wore off, however. Napoleon was 
not so well satisfied with the victory. He said Murat 
ought to have used his cavalry to cut off the Austrian 
retreat, brought Oudinot into action against their front, 
and captured Auffenberg's whole division. It was hardly 
a fair criticism. After the event, and with all the know- 
ledge that victory gives, it is often easy to show how a 
battle might have been made to yield more decisive results. 
But it is a different thing to decide at once amid the pro- 
verbial ' fog of war ' what is to be done. If Murat had been 
less prompt in his attack, and had waited till Oudinot had 
come up, Auffenberg might have got away without losing 
a gun or a prisoner, after fighting a rearguard action. ' It 
is a little success, very pleasing to Murat who was in com- 
mand,' wrote Napoleon to Joseph. Murat counted it a 
great success, and to the end of his life was proud of his 
victory of Wertingen. He pursued the enemy till dark, 



T24 jOAflTTM MUKAT 

breaking u|> an a( tempt ihI rally by ono nion^ rhargo la to 
in the day, sup]n)rtoil by tho tiro of a tow ol his guns. Noxt 
day Noy stoinioil i\w l>iiil,i;i> oi (iiinsbnig on tho Daniibo, 
passod ]>art ot his rorps ovim to tho south liank. and thus 
canio iuti> rouuiuuiit ation with Miuat. who was press- 
ing l\n\vard In (ho Worlingon-l'hu ro.ui. ()u {\\c loth. 
NapoUuni pKuwl iUc wliolo ris^ht wiug ol thi' .iiniy undiM" 
Muvat's ordiMS. autl lio thus ihsinisod ot \\\c oorps ot Lauuos 
and Noy as woU as tln^ vavahy.' NoithiM ol tho uiaisl\.ds 
likod tho anaugoniout. 

The vory hvst ordor that JMural issiu-d lod (oa dispulo with 
Ney, in whioh tho lattor was right autl Murat in the wrong. 
Murat had a mooting with Lanm^s anil Noy on tho loth, 
and dirootod tho lattiM to bring ovor all tho (>th coips to 
the south bank ol tlu- l)aiuilH\ loaving only Bouroier's 
battalions of dismountod dragoons to watoh the north front 
of V\m. Noy. supported by l.annos. pointed out that if 
Maek tiiok tho oltonsivo o\\ that side Uouroior's small force 
could hardly oven delay him, and by a rapid march north- 
eastwards the Austriaus wouiil have at thiMr mercy tho 
supply and auummilimi trains of the aiuiy. on the march 
to the bridges oi ihc nauube below lllm. Murat yielded 
so far as \o tell Noy io keep Oupout's division on the north 
bank. Noy pei-sistod that this was not sutVicient, unfolded 
a map, and tried to make l\lmat roahze tho risk that was 
being taken. Mmat refused to continue the discussion, 
and would not oven look at tho map. * 1 undei'stand 
nothing of your plans,' he said ; ' it is my waj'to make mine 
in the presence of the enemy ' — a foolish speech, with a 
dash of bad temper and self-sutVicient vanity in its com- 
position. 

In the discussion Murat had urgc>d that he had tho 
luuperor's i>rdeT"s to unite the sth and 0th i~orps with his 
cavalry. Hut Napoleon uudoi-stood tlu^ j-»osition better 

' l!\».vpl Iho two t.Uvi.>;iinis o( iviiiassiors niliiiitiumrs division was 
with ihc Imj^orial Caiaiil at \\\c iMuptfun's hoavlquait<M-s. aiul Nansonty's 
division l\ad boon soul to Movnailotto, who with tho 2\\d ooii>s and the 
Havanans was n\aivhin}; towards Munioh. to hold in vhoik tho oxpocto*! 
advaucc ot the Kussians niulcv Kutusoll. 



rAMPATGN OF TIT.M ANT) ATJSTERTJTZ 125 

than Ik; did, urnl Hioiighf ih;i,l; Miinit would I'uh/j lli<: 
conditions iiridcr wlii' li Im: h;i<l io ncl. hi .1, nolc (o IIm; 
marHha), dnlcd lfi<, i/lli, llic ICi»ipr;ror told him (li.d with 
his cavalry ;ind IIm- I wo corpH he had b(;tw<;(;ri (illy ;i,nd 
sixty tlif)(i';;ijid men in h.ind. Iff must march so ;i'. Io Jx; 
able ' to r,f>nf cnlcil'; llnni wilhin ',ix hf^urs to crush thfj 
<ncmy.' N«xl 'l;i,y he (wi'c vvrolc Io hiiri Io li;iv«-. ;i bridge 
ol Ixcil', flijown .'K.ioss III'". U.'inuh'-., ',0 ;is to hf, in f,;isy 
( onunnni' ;ili'*n wilh lli'; ltf)f>ps on the north bank, .'md to 
be ;ibl< |(, )( inlorcc them ni,j>idly in case the Austrians tried 
Io \)\('.\k out on th;d. side. All Ihi', '.hows lh;it N;ipolcon 
and Ncy t(jok the. SJi.rnc view ol the situ;U,/on, 

If Mack had been a rnoie enterprising geneml I here 
might h;ive, been serifHr; n;sults from ;r tnov in' rjl whieh 
he actu;dly m;i,dc oii the, nth. f)nf)onl ejojiip m on the 
north side, supfn^rted by two ol Mur-irs M/Mrnenls sent 
across the new bridge,, and by soitie ol liouoier'', di, mounted 
division, was att;i,cked id H.'i.shich, by ;) sf^rtie ol the Au'.tri?i,ns 
in supe,rior nurnbe,rs. 'J'lie Inerif h hjul tf; give w;i.y, ;i.nd 
III'' Austrian c;i.v;ihy f ;if)tur';f| ;i, l;i,rgf: Imin of supply and 
;i.mmunltion w;igf>ns, inr, hiding |>;irt of Ne.y's military 
chest, Jirifl the. infantry got possession of tlie, nortfi end of 
the l);mube bridge, its guard retiring after firing the planked 
roadw;),y. The, I'Vench rn.id'' siif.h ;i. goofj light, .'i.nd such a 
slow and steady retreat tli.i.t M;i.ck tfjougfit Dupont was 
stronger than he really was, and did not press his adv;i,nta,ge. 
lie halted, and c'mtented himself with occupying the line 
<)\ low hills, with the. vilhige ;i.nd conve.nt oi I'Jchinge.n ne.ar 
the, briflge. he;i.d. 

Al the news that M:,u.k w;is Irying t'^ bre.;il: onf ol dim, 
N.'ipole.on hurrie.d up Io the. Iroril. lie. unjufly f pro.i.che.d 
Ne.y lor h.'iving expf),'d I,»uj>'nil'!, flivision iin.iipfK^rted, 
and ordered th;it bridg'", should b'-. Ihrowrt ;if,ross the 
Danube in the night, .inrl th'; hJ' hing'^n positif^n re.t;),kf;n 
next day. The oj^eration w;is entiir-t';d to Ney, who was 
angrily efxger to clear hims'll witfi the ICmperor by a 
brilliant success. The whf^le 6th corjjs was concentrated 
on the north bank for the attack on iilcliingen. Napoleon 



126 JOACHIM MURAT 

and his staff, and Murat with some of his cavalry rode out 
to watch the advance. Before putting himself at the head 
of his men Ney galloped up to the Emperor to receive his 
last instructions. Then turning to Murat he said to him, 
with a meaning that the rest of his hearers could not under- 
stand, ' Come, prince, come with me, and make your plans 
in the presence of the enemy.' But Murat had no part in 
the day's work. The heights were stormed by the 6th 
corps with the bayonet, and the victory gave Ney his title 
of Duke of Elchingen. 

The corps of the French centre were now sweeping round 
to the south of Ulm. Ney reinforced from Lannes corps, 
and the Guard transferred to the left bank of the Danube, 
closed in on the north. On the 15th the infantry stormed 
the Frauenburg and Michelberg heights, driving the Austrians 
inside the works of Ulm. Murat with Beaumont's division 
of dragoons dashed through Haslach, charged the retiring 
enemy, cut off a battalion of infantry, and forced them to 
lay down their arms. Then his mounted troops com- 
pleted the investment on the west side. Mack was safe 
in the trap his own lack of information and his indecision 
had prepared for him. 

During the pause after Dupont's defeat at Haslach, and 
before Ney's victory at Elchingen, some eighteen thousand 
Austrians had escaped from the deadly circle that was 
closing on them. They were some eight thousand cavalry 
under the Archduke Ferdinand and Wemeck's division of 
infantry. Mack, shut up in Ulm, capitulated on the 17th, 
and Napoleon could write to Josephine that he had taken 
the first Austrian army ' by mere marching.' The Arch- 
duke and Werneck were not to be allowed to escape. They 
were in full march for the Bohemian frontier, but even 
before Mack surrendered Murat had been sent off in hot 
pursuit of the fugitives. 

On 18 October he was given Klein's division of dragoons, 
the chasseurs a cheval of the Imperial Guard, Dupont's 
infantry division, with the ist Hussars attached to it, and 
Fauconnet's two regiments of chasseurs. Next day he 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 127 

was reinforced by sending after him Oudinot's grenadiers 
and Milhaud with two more regiments of chasseurs a 
cheval. Murat executed his mission with unrelenting 
energy and complete success. In five days, from the i6th 
to the 2oth, he covered with his cavalry a distance of more 
than a hundred miles. Some of the flanking squadrons, 
sent out right and left, rode even further. Eight times 
he was in action with the enemy, and he took more than 
15,000 prisoners, 11 standards, 128 guns, and more than 
1000 wagons. 

There were two fights on the i6th. Klein forced several 
battalions to surrender at Albeck on the Danube. Twelve 
miles further on, at the village of Herbrechtingen, Murat 
came on a rearguard in battle array, with infantry and 
artillery. He sent his light infantry against the village, 
and himself charged at the head of the dragoons. He 
took 3000 prisoners in the fight and pursuit, and captured 
several guns. Next day there was another victorious fight 
at Neresheim, two standards were taken by Klein's dragoons, 
and 1000 prisoners. An Austrian general was among them. 
The Archduke narrowly escaped capture. 

That night Murat slept a few hours at the abbey of 
Neresheim. At daybreak an Austrian officer with a flag 
of truce arrived at the abbey and reported that three 
battalions were close by, dead beat with marching, with 
no food left, and anxious only to surrender. The prisoners 
were secured, and the pursuit went on. Early in the day 
Werneck was surrounded near Nordlingen, and surrendered 
with seven other general officers, and all the troops with 
him. A large convoy escaping to the eastwards was over- 
taken and captured after Fauconnet's chasseurs had 
charged the escort. The day's captures were nearly 5000 
prisoners, 5 standards, 80 guns, and 400 Austrian wagons, 
besides the supply and ammunition train, and the military 
chest captured by the enemy at Haslach. There were 
further captures on the 19th and 20th. The Archduke 
tried to delay the pursuit by sending back word that an 
armistice was being arranged. Murat refused to hear of 



128 JOACHIM MURAT 

it, but the report delayed Klein's dragoons for a while. 
The Austrians abandoned guns and wagons to expedite 
their march. More than once the French cavalry was in 
action with their rearguard. On the 20th Murat was in 
Nuremberg. In front were the difficult roads of the Fran- 
conian hills, and his horses were showing signs of exhaustion. 
He stopped the five days' pursuit. Enough had been 
done. The Archduke crossed the Bohemian frontier with 
less than 3000 men, all that was left of the 60,000 with which 
Mack had marched into Bavaria. 

Napoleon gave Murat the praise he deserved. In the 
bulletin of the Grand Army, published on 22 October, 
he wrote : ' One is filled with astonishment at the sight of 
Prince Murat's march from Albeck to Nuremberg ; he 
fought every day, and overtook the enemy, who had a start 
of two days.' In a later bulletin he told of the ' prodigious 
activity ' of the pursuit, and reckoned up the captures. 
Eighteen Austrian generals had been taken, and three 
killed in action. 

When Mack surrendered at Ulm, Kutusoff, with the 
Russian vanguard, had only reached the Inn, and was about 
to enter Bavaria. The slow march of the corps which were 
on the way to join him left him with only some 35,000 
men immediately available. Even if he had been joined 
by the 20,000 Austrians assembled under the Archduke 
John in the Tyrol he was not strong enough to attack the 
force that Bemadotte had moved up to Munich, to protect 
the operations against Ulm from his expected advance. 
Bemadotte had with his own corps (the ist), that of Davoflt 
(the 3rd), and the Bavarian army. On the news that Ulm 
had fallen, and that Napoleon was concentrating the Grand 
Army about Munich for an immediate advance into Austria, 
Kutusoff began to retreat along the south bank of the 
Danube. 

Murat, after giving his men a day's rest at Nuremberg, 
had been ordered up to Munich by Napoleon. By turning 
over the best of the captured horses to his own regiments, 
he hurriedly provided remounts to replace those that had 



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CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 129 

broken down in first stage of the campaign. At Munich 
he was directed to pursue Kutusoff, whose rearguard was 
still upon the Inn.^ 

He set off with D'HautpouFs cuirassier division, Beau- 
mont and Walther's divisions of dragoons, Milhaud's 
chasseurs, and the light cavalry of Soult's corps. After a 
fight with the Russian rearguard, he forced the crossings of 
the Inn and entered Austrian territory on 29 October. 
Following up the enemy, he found next day the Russian 
rearguard in position at Ried (four battalions and eight 
squadrons strong) . ' To find the rearguard and to charge 
it, was for the cavalry one and the same thing,' wrote 
Napoleon, in the bulletin that described the action. The 
Russians were broken and driven back, 500 prisoners were 
taken, and only darkness stopped the pursuit for a while. 
On the 31st there was another action at Lembach, with 400 
prisoners taken, and in the first week of November a series 
of rearguard affairs, in which the cavalry secured nearly 
two thousand more. 

On 7 November Murat occupied the abbey of Molk, 
on the direct road to Vienna. The Austrian Emperor had 
been at the abbey that morning, and left it only a few 
hours before the French cavalry appeared. From Molk 
Murat pushed forward a detachment towards St. Polten, 
within twenty miles of Vienna. In the evening the 
advanced cavalry found themselves in touch with a body 
of white-uniformed troops of no great strength. It was 
Kienmayer's Austrian division covering the road to the 
capital. Kutusoff with the Russians had turned north- 
wards from St. Polten to cross the Danube at Diirrenstein, 
and fall upon the isolated eighth corps, which was marching 
along the left bank of the river. 

Here Murat committed his first mistake in the pursuit. 
He had the corps of Lannes close at hand to support him, 
in dealing with Kienmayer's Austrian division. And 
though his real business was to keep touch with, and con- 
tinually harass, the main body of the retreating enemy 

1 See map, p. 129, Murat's pursuit of Kutusoff and seizure of Vienna. 
I 



130 JOACHIM MURAT 

(Kutusoff), the temptation was too strong for him when he 
saw the certainty that he could sweep Kienmayer out of 
the way, or drive him back, and in either case have the 
glory of occupying the capital of the Austrian Empire. 

Driving Kienmayer before him from St. Polten, Murat 
with the greater part of his cavalry, and a considerable 
force of Lannes' troops with him, estabhshed his head- 
quarters on II November within three miles of the 
western suburbs of Vienna. He threw forward parties of 
his mounted troops to occupy the roads leading southward 
to Styria, and eastward to Hungary, and sent patrols along 
the Danube to collect boats for the crossing of the river. 
The same day he received orders from Napoleon to halt 
where he was for the present. ' My cousin,' wrote the 
Emperor (using the form of address employed in corres- 
pondence with his marshals), ' I cannot approve of your 
way of proceeding. You go right on in an empty headed 
way without weighing the orders I have sent to you. . . . 
You have thought only of the trifling glory of entering 
Vienna. There is no glory where there is no danger, and 
there is none in entering a capital which is undefended.' 

Murat remained halted for twenty-four hours. Then 
came permission to advance. Napoleon had in the mean- 
time reinforced Mortier, and made the situation secure 
on the north bank of the Danube, and decided that for the 
sake of moral effect Vienna should be occupied. He was 
about to establish his own headquarters in the palace 
of the Emperor Francis at Schonbrunn, the Versailles of 
Austria, 

For Murat to occupy Vienna was easy enough. Kien- 
mayer had retired across the Danube into the eastern 
suburb of Florisdorf. But Murat was anxious not only 
to enter the capital, but also to secure the great bridge 
over the Danube. He had heard that Kienmayer's 
engineers had mined it, and that a battery of artillery 
was in position to prevent it being rushed before the 
moment came when, on the advance of the French in force, 
the Austrians would blow it up. Seconded by Lannes 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 131 

he decided to get possession of the bridge by a piece of 
trickery. 

Early on the 13th, while the corps of Lannes and several 
regiments of the cavalry reserve were marching into the 
streets of Vienna, Murat sent forward to the bridge the 
1st Hussars with General Bertrand, one of the Emperor's 
aides-de-camp, and Major Lanusse of his own staff. Near 
the western end of the bridge they were challenged by a 
picket of cavalry. They told the Austrians that peace 
negotiations had begun, and asked for the officer command- 
ing at the bridge to be sent for. Halting the hussars the 
two officers then dismounted, and were immediately 
joined by Lannes and Murat, who, on foot with their 
hands behind their backs, strolled slowly on to the 
bridge and began talking to the Austrian officers while 
waiting for their immediate commander. General Count 
Auersperg, to arrive. 

At the further end of the bridge a battery of artillery was 
in position, pointing to the Viennese shore of the river, so 
as to sweep the roadway. The guns were loaded and 
gunners stood match in hand behind them. On the bridge 
sacks of sand piled up, and the canvas hose that contained 
the powder train, showed that it had been prepared for 
immediate destruction. Murat and Lannes were taking 
a serious risk in their adventure. Gradually moving for- 
ward they found themselves among the officers and 
artillerymen in charge of the battery. Murat told the 
Austrians that all their hostile precautions were now out 
of date. ' In a few days,' he said, ' our Emperors will be 
the best of friends, and we shall be comrades and allies.' 

Meanwhile a battalion of Oudinot's grenadiers had 
arrived on the western bank. Some of the men hid them- 
selves, took cover behind the poplars along the river. 
The rest were given the order to mark time, but as they 
did so came nearer and nearer to the bridge by short steps. 
On the bridge itself a French engineer officer, concealed by 
a group of his friends standing round him, cut the powder 
rain. Auersperg now arrived, and in reply to Murat's 



132 JOACHIM MURAT 

and Lannes' professions of friendship and talk of an 
armistice expressed his pleasure at the news. 

Then one of the Austrian otHcers, pointing to Oudinot's 
grenadiers, asked why those troops were advancing on the 
bridge. Lannes told him he was mistaken. The men 
were only marking time to keep themselves warm, for it 
was a bitterly cold morning. Then a number of staff 
officers joined the two French generals, and suddenly it 
was seen that the hussars were galloping on to the bridge 
with the grenadiers doubling behind them. The battery 
commander called out ' Fire ! ' but the order was hardly 
audible, for Murat had caught him by the throat with an 
iron grip. At the same moment Lannes and the other 
officers were knocking the matches out of the hands of the 
gunners. The hussars came riding in among the guns, 
with their swords sheathed. The gunners were hustled 
away from them, and Frenchmen and Austrians were 
mingled together. Murat and Lannes were complaining 
to Auersperg that the artillery officer had risked a horrible 
massacre for no purpose. The fellow ought to be court- 
martialled and shot, they said. Auersperg was in a helpless 
state of mental confusion — half believing in the armistice, 
half fearing that he was the victim of a trick. The 
grenadiers had meanwhile marched past the battery, and 
were in possession of the eastern bank. Masses of French 
troops appeared coming out of the streets on the opposite 
shore. Auersperg was glad enough to be allowed to 
take his guns away, and retired with his men into 
Florisdorf. 

Kienmayer put him under arrest, and he was subse- 
quently tried b}'^ court-martial for allowing his post to be 
surprised, and was condemned to death. The Emperor 
Francis commuted the sentence, and he was imprisoned 
for ten 3^ears in a fortress. Even in the French army 
opinion was divided as to the legitimacy of Murat's tour 
de Gascon, his Gascon trick. He and Lannes certainly 
lied boldly, and it was lucky for them that Auersperg was 
such a confiding fool. Marbot in his memoirs says that 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 133 

their conduct was among soldiers something ' inadmissable.' 
Certainly it was nothing to be proud of. 

Strange to say Murat, only two days later, fell into much 
the same kind of a snare. Napoleon had sent him across 
the Danube, with D'Hautpoul and Nensouty's cuirassier 
divisions, Walther's regiments of dragoons and the light 
cavalry, to regain touch with Kutusoff, ascertain whether 
he was retiring on Bohemia or Moravia, and follow him up. 
The corps of Lannes and Soult were moving behind the 
cavalry. On 15 November Murat came on Bagration's 
Russian corps in position near Hollabrun, amid broken 
ground where mounted troops were of little use. It was 
known that an envoy from the Austro-Russian headquarters 
was at Schonbrunn discussing possible terms of peace with 
Napoleon. Murat was anxious to keep Bagration near 
Hollabrun till the infantry of Lannes and Soult could 
come up to attack the position, so he entered into com- 
munication with the Russians, and told them he believed 
an armistice was being arranged at Schonbrunn. Bagration 
then informed him that Prince Winzegerode, an aide-de- 
camp of the Czar, was with him, and had important news. 
Winzegerode met Murat under a flag of truce, and surprised 
him by assuring him that peace was practically arranged, 
and then suggested that an armistice should be concluded, 
and the further advance of Murat's troops stopped. Murat 
now believed that the fiction he had sprung on Bagration 
was a fact, and flattered at being in communication with 
a direct representative of the Czar, and playing a part in 
the settlement of international interests, he agreed to the 
truce, and reported to Napoleon that in consequence of 
what he had heard from the Czar's aide-de-camp he had 
stopped the advance of the cavalry and the two corps under 
his orders. 

Bagration had scored heavily, and Murat was ' hoist 
with his own petard.' A few miles to the north of Holla- 
brun Kutusoff's army, encumbered by an enormous baggage 
train, was retiring eastwards towards Moravia across the 
line of the French advance. Bagration had been posted 



134 JOACHIM MURAT 

at Hollabrun as a flank guard to cover this movement, and 
was congratulating himself on being able, by Winzegcrode's 
smooth words to Murat, to arrest for a day or two the 
advance of the superior forces with which he was threatened. 

When Napoleon heard what had happened he was very 
angry. ' It is impossible,' he wrote to Murat, ' for me to 
find terms in which to express to you my displeasure. You 
are only the commander of my advanced guard, and you 
have no right to arrange an armistice without my orders. 
You are making me lose the results of a campaign. Break 
olf the armistice at once, and march upon the enemy.' 

Murat received this letter early on the i6th, and realised 
that he had been duped. He called up Lannes and Soult 
and attacked Bagration, who retired after a hard-fought 
rearguard action in which he lost in the fight and pursuit 
1800 prisoners and 12 guns. The cavalry could take little 
share in the battle, but followed up the retiring enemy, 
making large numbers of prisoners. 

The negotiations at Schonbrunn came to nothing. Murat 
with the advanced guard was pressing close upon Kutusoff' s 
retreat. On the 17th he rode through Znaim ; on the 
19th he occupied Briinn, which the enemy had just left. 
Then he pushed forward along the road to Olmutz, and next 
day there was a briUiant cavalry action at Raussnitz. 
Walther's dragoons came on a mass of 6000 of the allied 
cavalry, and kept them in play till Murat arrived with 
his two cuirassier divisions, and the cavalry of the Imperial 
Guard led by his countryman, Bessieres. Then a series of 
splendid charges drove the enemy from the field. 

Kutusoff, in his retreat to Olmutz, had been joined by 
Austrian and Russian reinforcements, while the French 
army, with its losses in the long series of forced marches 
and the detachments it had left behind, had dwindled 
in numbei-s till the advantage in that respect was on the 
side of the Allies. Murat's force now became a rearguard, 
falling back before the Allies, whom Napoleon was luring 
westward towards the position he had chosen for the 
decisive battle, along the banks of the Goldbach brook, 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 135 

and behind the frozen lakes of Mennitz between Austerlitz 
and Briinn. 

On I December the two armies faced each other on 
opposite sides of the long hollow of the Goldbach. There 
is no need to tell again in detail the story of Austerlitz, 
the decisive victory won next day, against superior numbers, 
on the anniversary of the Emperor's coronation. The 
numbers actually engaged were 82,050 of the Allies (includ- 
ing 16,500 cavalry) against 65,000 Frenchmen, of whom 
15,000 were mounted troops, two-thirds of whom were 
concentrated under Murat on the left. He was in command 
of the whole left wing, including the cavalry reserve and 
the corps of Lannes. Opposed to him were Bagration's 
Russian corps, and a mass of 82 squadrons of Austrian, 
Russian and Cossack cavalry under Prince Lichtenstein. 
As the ' sun of Austerlitz ' rose in its splendour, and the 
morning fog broke up along the Goldbach brook, the huge 
columns concentrated for the attack against the French 
right were seen descending the slopes, only to be held back 
hour after hour by the stubborn defence made by Davout 
between the hills and the Mennitz lakes and swamps, in 
a defile where he could securely face superior numbers. 
This concentration against his right to cut him from the 
roads to Vienna was the manoeuvre Napoleon had hoped 
and foreseen the Allies would adopt. It enabled him to 
meet them with equal numbers on the left, and with superior 
force in the centre, where his great attack on the Pratzen 
plateau broke the allied line in two, cut off the retreat of 
those who had attacked his right, and in combination with 
Davout's dogged resistance forced the enemy back on the 
frozen lakes where they drowned in crowds, as the French 
artillery fire broke the ice under their feet. 

During the long resistance of the right, and the decisive 
attack in the centre, it was Murat's task to keep Bagration's 
infantry occupied, and prevent Lichtenstein's multitude of 
splendid horsemen from breaking in on the flank and rear. 
The ground was not favourable to cavalry action, but 
while Lannes with Oudinot's grenadiers and Suchet and 



136 JOACHIM MURAT 

Legrand's linesmen met Bagration's attack with a stubborn- 
ness equal to that of the Russians themselves, there were 
repeated charges and melees of the cavalry amid the broken 
ground. Murat was once, through a mistake he made, in 
imminent danger of losing libert}'' or life. He was standing 
with his staff and escort on the flank of the infantry line, 
when a blue-uniformed regiment of cavalry came riding 
through the fog of battle smoke. * Don't fire. They are 
our Bavarian allies,' cried Murat to the infantry. Suddenly 
the approaching horsemen charged. They were Russian 
dragoons. Murat found himself cut off with some of his staff 
and a handful of his escort, but fought his way through 
the dragoons, sword in hand, without even a wound. 

The victorious advance of the French centre isolated the 
Russian left. Bagration began to fall back towards the 
heights in front of Austerlitz, and Lannes attacked in his 
turn, Suchet's regiments charging home with the ba5^onet. 
The furious onset of Murat's cavalry drove in the enemy's 
horsemen, and the French cavalry falling on the retiring 
columns of Bagration's corps took many standards and 
twenty-seven guns, and gathered up some seven thousand 
prisoners. 

Darkness and the exhaustion of horses and men made 
pursuit impossible that evening. Next morning Murat 
failed to discover that the main mass of the Allies was re- 
tiring towards Hungary, and pursued only a body of Lichten- 
stein's cavalry that had taken the road to Olmutz. Before 
evening the pursuit was stopped. Napoleon had been 
asked by the Emperor Francis to open negotiations, and 
an armistice had been arranged. Within a month peace 
was concluded on terms dictated by France, and 
the Treaty of Pressburg was signed on New Year's 
Day, 1806. 

We must turn from the story of battles and victories to 
say something of Murat's relations mth his old home, for 
a few days after Austerhtz we find him writing from 
Vienna to his brother Andre. There is not a word about 
the great events of the time. He only thinks of his 



CAMPAIGN OF ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 137 

aged mother, whose Hfe he knew could not now be much 
prolonged : — 

^ My dear Brother, — As the extremely advanced age that 
our incomparable mother has attained must make us anticipate 
that she may be taken from us at any moment, I wish to remind 
you of the sacred duties we must fulfil in this event. I wish to 
preserve her loved remains and have them near me. Therefore, 
when you have closed her eyes, when, happier than me, you 
have received her last breath, have her body embalmed, and 
after rendering it the last funeral honours, lay it in a stone tomb 
which I charge you to have constructed. I shall then be able 
to have her remains removed later to a place I intend to prepare 
for them on one of my country estates. It is with tears in my 
eyes that I tell you of my wishes. You are too good a son and 
too good a brother not to do what I ask.' 

Jeanne Murat died three months later, on 11 March 
1806, while her son Joachim was busy with his accession 
to the Grand Duchy of Berg. She was tenderly cared for 
to the last by Andre and her daughters. Her body was 
entombed in the parish church of La Bastide. Murat 
erected a monument there to her memory, with the inscrip- 
tion : — 

LA PIETE FILIALE 

A DAME MURAT 

1806 

DlfeCEDEE LE ii MARS, AGEE DE 85 ANS 

Non la conobbe il mondo mentre I'abbe 
Connobil'io ch'a pianger qui rimasi,^ 



1 Petrarch, Sonnet lxvii. — 

* The world knew her not while it possessed her. 
I knew her, who remain here to weep for her.' 



138 JOACHIM MURAT 



CHAPTER IX 

MURAT GRAND DUKE OF BERG — THE JENA CAMPAIGN 

1806 



A 



LTHOUGH Trafalgar — fought four days after the 
surrender of Ulm — had blasted Napoleon's hopes 
of victory on the sea, the crowning triumph of 
AusterHtz had made him the dictator of the Continent. 
For a thousand years the chief sovereign in Europe, 
always in precedence, often in power, was ' the Emperor.' 
Officially he was the civil head of Christendom. For 
centuries the dignity had been practically hereditary 
in the House of Hapsburg, but now the Emperor 
Francis 11. yielded the precedence established by a 
thousand years of tradition, ceased to be the German 
Emperor, became merely the Emperor Francis t. of Austria, 
and acknowledged as more than his equal the self-elected 
upstart ' Emperor of the French.' As the old Empire of 
central Europe had had its circle of vassal states, so Napoleon 
meant that his new Empire should have its royal and grand- 
ducal satellites. The Bourbons of Naples had rashly 
thrown in their lot with Austria on the outbreak of the 
war. A French army occupied Naples, and Joseph Bona- 
parte was proclaimed its king. Another of Napoleon's 
brothers. Prince Louis, the husband of Hortense Beau- 
hamais, was made King of Holland. Prussia had hesitated 
during the conflict on the Danube, had more than once 
been on the point of joining the Allies, but had waited too 
long ; and when the news of Austerlitz came, the Prussian 
Court consented to arrange by the Treaty of Schonbrunn 
(15 December 1805) a remodelling of Germany, the 



MURAT GRAND DUKE OF BERG 139 

cession of various territories in the Rhineland to the 
nominees of Napoleon, and the formation of the ' Confedera- 
tion of the Rhine/ a grouping together of the minor states 
of south and west Germany under Napoleon's ' protec- 
torate.' 

It was here that Murat found his reward for his brilUant 
services in the campaign of Ulm and Austerlitz. Napoleon 
had freely rewarded the cavalry officers who had distin- 
guished themselves. The higher grades of the Legion of 
Honour were granted to thirty-two of Murat's colonels, 
and thirteen of them were promoted to the rank of General 
de Brigade. What was to be done for their chief? A 
marshal of France could rise no higher in military rank. 
He must be given a sovereignty. 

There was another motive for his promotion. Caroline's 
sisters Elisa and Pauline had been provided with tributary 
principalities of the Empire in central Italy. Caroline used 
all her influence and all her powers of persuasion to obtain 
a like position for herself by securing a coronet or a crown 
for her husband. She was probably disappointed when 
she learned that it was to be only a coronet, but then it 
might lead to a crown. 

Napoleon, in planning the Confederation of the Rhine, 
had decided to form a new state between the frontiers of 
France and Prussia, and to make a French prince its sove- 
reign. This was the reward assigned to Murat. By the 
Treaty of Schonbrunn Prussia had ceded to France the 
Duchy of Cleves, including the fortress of Wesel on the 
lower Rhine, and the principality of Anhalt on the northern 
frontier of Bavaria. The Elector of Bavaria, Napoleon's 
ally, whom he had made a king, agreed to take over Anhalt, 
and exchange for it the Bavarian territory of the Duchy of 
Berg, the country along the Rhine about Dusseldorf, adjoin- 
ing the Duchy of Cleves. Cleves and Berg were united to 
form a new sovereign state, which was to be known as the 
* Grand Duchy of Berg.' 

On 9 March 1806 Murat, who was then in Paris, was 
informed by the Emperor that he was to proceed to Cologne, 



140 JOACHIM MURAT 

where he would receive from the King of Bavaria formal 
authorization to take possession of the territory of Berg. 
He was then to go to Dusseldorf, which was to be the capital 
of the new Grand Duchy, and would be occupied by a 
column of French troops under General Dupont. Simul- 
taneously the Prussians would evacuate the fortress of 
Wesel, and hand it over to a column under General 
Beaumont. 

The Imperial decree, constituting the new state and 
naming Murat Grand Duke, was signed on 15 March. 
The Emperor declares that he confers on ' his weU-beloved 
brother-in-law, Prince Joachim,' the two duchies, to be 
inherited by his male heirs in the direct line, and held by 
him in full and independent sovereignty. The dignity 
of Grand Admiral of the Empire is to be hereditary in the 
line of the Grand Dukes. The sovereign's official title is to 
be ' Prince Joachim, Grand Admiral of France, and Grand 
Duke of Berg and Cleves.' He is now henceforth to be 
known as Prince Murat. Little Achille, as heir-apparent 
of the new state, is to be known as the ' Duke of Cleves.' 

On the i6th Murat's aide-de-camp, Beaumont, took 
possession of Wesel. The same day Murat arrived at 
Cologne, where he received the formal cession of Berg 
from the envoys of the King of Bavaria. On the 21st the 
Bavarian garrison marched out of Dusseldorf, and the city 
was occupied by 6000 French troops under Dupont. On 
the 25th the new Grand Duke, wearing the uniform of a 
Marshal of France, and escorted by French mounted 
gendarmes and grenadiers, drove from Cologne along the 
banks of the Rhine, and was received at the barriers of 
Dusseldorf by Dupont and his staff, the clergy and the 
civil authorities. Amid the pealing of bells and the thunder 
of salutes, he was given the keys of the city, and then drove 
through streets hung with flags, crowded with cheering 
spectators, and lined by French infantry, to the old electoral 
palace in the Hofgarten in the centre of the place. In the 
evening there was an illumination, and next day the Grand 
Duke was present at High Mass in St. Andrew's Church. 



MURAT GRAND DUKE OF BERG 141 

He wore this time a Court costume, the official robes of the 
Grand Admiral of France, with a blue mantle stiff with 
gold embroidery. He had a throne under a canopy, beside 
the altar, and after the Mass he took the oath to observe 
the new constitution of the state, and, speaking in French, 
thanked his subjects for their enthusiastic welcome, and 
declared that he would labour for the prosperity of the 
people of Cleves and Berg. 

Within a week he was trying to enlarge his territory. 
He looked upon this sovereignty over 320,000 Rhinelanders 
as only the nucleus of a much larger state. Probably this 
was also Napoleon's view, but the Emperor counted on lapse 
of time giving opportunities for annexation, while Murat's 
restless spirit was in a hurry to begin at once. Three days 
after his entry into his capital he wrote to Napoleon : ' In 
taking possession of the Duchy of Cleves Beaumont 
neglected to occupy the territories of the ancient abbeys of 
Essen and Werden. I have ordered him to complete his 
task by occupying these two territories. I hope that no 
protest will be raised, but if there is I trust to the justice 
and good will of your Majesty to support my rights.' And 
the same day he wrote to the Emperor's Foreign Minister, 
Talleyrand : ' You may look for a declaration of war as 
the result of this occupation. But I shall uphold my rights. 
Defend me, and consider that I am on outpost duty here.' 

War might well be the result. Bliicher had commanded 
the Prussian garrison in Cleves. He had chafed at the 
inaction of his countrymen during the war of 1805, and he 
had only evacuated Cleves and Wesel reluctantly, and after 
repeated orders from Berlin. Even then he had purposely 
left small posts at Essen and Werden, and kept a force of 
all arms near the border on Prussian territory. When 
Beaumont occupied the two places each with a company 
Bliicher came back with infantry, cavalry, and artillery, 
surrounded Essen and Werden, blockaded the French 
infantry companies, and reported to his government, asking 
for leave to expel or capture them. 

There was excitement at Paris and Berlin, But Napoleon 



142 JOACHIM MURAT 

did not want war. ' I am annoyed,' he said, ' at the heat 
imported into this affair, which is not so important that it 
cannot be quietly arranged in a friendly way.' The situa- 
tion was made more difficult by Murat asserting that when 
Beaumont took possession there were no Prussian soldiers 
in Werden or Essen. The Prussian ambassador at Paris 
gave Talleyrand proof that this was not true. Murat tried 
to excite the Emperor's personal feelings on the subject. 
* Sire,' he wrote, ' I should consider myself guilty if I re- 
nounced rights I hold from your Majesty, and if I allowed 
your eagles to \nthdraw before the Prussian eagles. I 
await your Majesty's orders. You may rely on it, that 
the Prussians wall not carry their point with me. Tell me 
to turn them out of Westphalia, and soon we shall be rid 
of those insolent neighbours, who need a good lesson such 
as your Majesty knows how to give to overbearing powers.' 

With French and Prussian troops in contact in the border- 
land of Cleves, and Bliicher and Murat both recklessly 
anxious for a fight, the situation was dangerous. Napoleon 
threw cold water on the new Grand Duke's bellicose pro- 
posals. ' What am I to say to you ? ' he wrote. ' You act 
now without any balance, now without any foresight. 
There was no reason to occupy Essen and Werden because 
the Prussian commissioner had not handed them over. 
But if you did occup}^ them it ought to have been in such 
force that a Piiissian general \dth a couple of battalions 
could not turn you out. I have written to the King of 
Prussia to withdraw his troops, and you must withdraw 
yours. The result is that you have brought a touch of 
disgrace on my arms.' It took three months of negotiation 
to draw up a statement of the case that saved the amour 
pro'pre of both sides, and aiTange the simultaneous with- 
drawal of the French and Prussian troops. 

While the matter was still under discussion Murat had 
raised new claims. The adjoining Prussian territory of 
the Duch}'' of Marck ought to be annexed to Berg. There 
were historical foundations for the claim, he said, and 
besides ^larck and Berg had such intimate commercial 



MURAT GRAND DUKE OF BERG 143 

relations that they were really one country. The Emperor 
refused to hear of the question being raised. In April a 
further diplomatic difficulty arose over a claim of Murat 
to levy duties on merchandise passing down the Rhine. 
Napoleon wrote to him that he must live in peace with 
Prussia, and not be such a restless neighbour. He wanted 
no quarrel with Berlin, he said. His policy was directed 
to other ends. If Murat were so precipitate in raising now 
one claim, now another, he would only be forced con- 
tinually to withdraw from untenable positions. Nothing 
was lost by patience and friendly words. He must keep 
quiet, and above all he must be prudent in his language. 
He warned him that everything that he said at Dusseldorf 
was at once reported at Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Vienna, 
and often by those he thought his friends. Instead of 
offending the great powers by rash claims and wild talk, 
he must attend to the organisation of his states. Why 
had he not yet reported on the condition of the fortress of 
Wesel, and seen that it was armed, garrisoned, and pro- 
visioned ? This was the most important business he had 
to attend to, and yet Napoleon had not had a word from 
him on the subject. 

Murat had visited Wesel on 3 April in order to receive 
the oaths of allegiance of his new subjects in the Duchy 
of Cleves. He wrote to Napoleon that the revenues of 
Berg would not enable him to maintain the fortress, and 
he thought it would be best to disarm it, sell off the supplies 
and reduce it to the position of an open town. Napoleon 
rephed that Wesel must be maintained, and its fortifications 
strengthened and kept in a complete state of efficiency. 
It was important for the defence of the Lower Rhine and 
the frontier of Holland. He would himself provide all 
expenses, but it must be a fortress of the Empire, held 
by a French garrison, whose commandant would in no 
way interfere with the Grand Duke's subjects, the civil 
population. 

Murat had sent for a fellow-countryman and old friend, 
Agar, who had been his schoolfellow at the college of Cahors, 



144 JOACHIM MURAT 

and one of his colleagues when he was elected to the Corps 
L^gislatif by the Department of the Lot. He gave Agar 
an estate and the title of Count of Mosbourg, and made 
him his prime minister, with the right of acting in his 
name whenever he himself was absent from the Grand 
Duchy. This being arranged he went to Paris on 25 April, 
after a staj' of onl}'- a month in his new territory. 

Joachim and Caroline, Grand Duke and Duchess of Berg, 
received the honours due to sovereigns at the court of the 
Tuileries on all occasions of public ceremony. But much as 
they liked display and ceremony, Caroline and Murat were 
both anxious to obtain more solid advantages, and had the 
influence to secure a long list of favours from Napoleon. 
This was why Murat had come to Paris. He could push 
his fortunes better there than at Dusseldorf . The organiza- 
tion of the new Confederation of the Rhine was being 
arranged. It was to be formally constituted by the 
beginning of July. Murat, ably seconded by his \vife, 
urged his claims so well that it was settled that the terri- 
tories of the Grand Duchy were to be enlarged, so that 
Murat would have some 280,000 more subjects with a 
corresponding increase of revenue. This was effected by 
the Duchy of Nassau ceding to him a stretch of territory 
along the Rhine, including the town of Deutz opposite 
Cologne, and the district of Konigsmnter and the Seven 
Mountains, and a number of minor principalities and 
signories, some of them then actually occupied by Prussia, 
becoming his tributaries. 

He asked for and obtained from Napoleon, a week after, 
some new concessions — permission to accept the order of 
the Golden Fleece offered him by Godoy, the prime minister 
of Spain ; ten thousand stand of arms, and several batteries 
of field pieces for the Uttle army of his Grand Duchy ; the 
transfer of a regiment of Polish lancers to his service ; the 
right to remove from Bonn some scores of orange-trees for his 
garden at Dusseldorf ; free places in the French military 
schools for cadets from Berg ; the gift of 150,000 francs to 
complete the payments on account of Caroline's Paris 








MURAT IN COURT COSTUME AS GRAND DUKE OF BERG 

AFTER THE I'AINTING BV GERARD 



MURAT GRAND DUKE OF BERG 145 

palace of the Elysee ; and the possession of the chateau 
of Briihl near Cologne, famous as the place of Mazarin's 
exile. 

Finally he raised the question of Wesel. The fortress 
ought to be his. He was hardly an independent ruler with 
a French garrison holding it. Hortense tells how he amused 
her one day by saying with an air of bringing forward an 
unanswerable argument : ' The Emperor has no right to 
deprive me of this fortress. It does not come to me from 
him, for it was a treaty with the King of Prussia that gave 
it to me.' On his way back to Dusseldorf in July, he wrote 
a formal request to Napoleon to relinquish Wesel to him, 
urging that it was a question that concerned the position 
of his duchy, not merely in the present, but under his 
successors. Napoleon replied that he himself was spend- 
ing millions of francs on Wesel, and that such an important 
fortress, commanding the lower Rhine, must remain a part 
of the defensive system of the empire. ' As for a guarantee 
for the independence of your children,' he continued, ' that 
is a pitiable argument, at which I can only shrug my 
shoulders. I blush at your using it. You are a French- 
man. I hope your children will be the same. Any other 
sentiment would be so dishonouring to you that I beg you 
will never speak of it. It would be strange if, after all the 
benefits the French people has heaped upon you, you 
should be thinking of securing for your children the means 
of acting against France. Once more, do not talk of this 
to me again. It is too ridiculous.' 

Murat had arrived at Dusseldorf on 25 July. There 
Agar informed him that the Prussians had not yet evacuated 
all the principalities ceded to him. At once he wrote to 
Napoleon that, with the ten thousand French and local 
troops in the Grand Duchy, he would take forcible posses- 
sion of his own. On 2 August, the Emperor sent him 
another rebuke. ' My cousin,' he wrote, ' your idea of 
forcibly driving the Prussians out of the territory they 
occupy is a piece of sheer foUy. It would be an insult on 
your part to Prussia, and that is quite contrary to my 



146 JOACHIM MURAT 

intentions. I am good friends with that power, and have 
stopped the peace negotiations with England in order that 
Prussia may retain Hanover. From this you can judge 
if I am Hkely to embroil myself with her for such stupidities. 
I cannot express the pain I feel on reading your letters. 
You are of a rashness that drives one to despair.' 

Once more Napoleon had to intervene to check his 
projects, when on i September he convoked the States- 
General of Berg and Cleves, and brought forward a scheme 
for increasing the revenues of the Grand Duchy by addi- 
tional taxation, including contributions from the princes 
over whose lands he had obtained suzerain rights in July, 
contributions against which they had been expressly 
guaranteed. ' Prince Murat is committing only follies,' 
wrote Napoleon. There might have been a serious quarrel, 
but just then Napoleon had other work for him to do. 
The Grand Duke was once more to become the dashing 
French cavalry leader. 

Constant friction with Prussia during the summer, in 
which Murat's irritating action played some part, had 
helped the war party at Berlin, backed by the influence of 
the Czar, to gain the ascendant over the more prudent 
poHcy of King Frederick WilHam. Prussia had mobilized 
its army and concluded a treaty of alliance with Russia in 
August. On 15 September, the Prussian ministry called 
on Napoleon to withdraw his troops from German territory. 
The Emperor replied by a declaration of war, and by order- 
ing the immediate reinforcement of the French troops 
stationed in south Germany, which was to be his base of 
operations in the advance on Berlin. 

On 18 September, BeUiard, Murat's chief of the staff, 
was ordered to proceed to Wiirzburg. It was not till the 
29th that Murat himself was told to go there. He was to 
do the same work that had been entrusted to him at the 
outset of the campaign of 1805. As lieutenant-general of 
the Emperor, he was to supervise the concentration of the 
Grand Army in northern Bavaria, organize the supply and 



THE JENA CAMPAIGN 147 

intelligence services, and on the arrival of Napoleon take 
command of the Cavalry Reserve. The organization of the 
cavalry was much the same as in the preceding year. There 
were D'Hautpoul and Nansouty's cuirassier divisions 
(together ten regiments), four divisions of dragoons com- 
manded by Klein, Grouchy, Beaumont and Sahuc, and 
each six regiments strong ; a brigade of two hussar regi- 
ments under Lasalle ; and a regiment of chasseurs under 
General Milhaud, intended to be the nucleus of a division 
of light cavalry — thirty-seven regiments in all, at the outset 
of the campaign. Later, a division of four regiments of 
cuirassiers under General Espagne was brought from Italy, 
and a fifth division of dragoons was formed under General 
Becker, by taking two regiments each from the divisions of 
Sahuc and Grouchy. 

On 30 September, Murat's advanced cavalry was on 
the Prussian frontier. There was a pause of a few days. 
On 7 October, the Emperor issued his proclamation to 
the army ordering the general advance. Next day Murat 
was over the border, and pushing his patrols boldly into the 
Thuringian hills, behind which the Prussian and Saxon 
armies were concentrating. That day he forced the cross- 
ing of the Saale, and occupied Saalburg after a sharp fight. 
Next day, he helped to rout a Prussian detachment at 
Schleitz. These actions were small affairs, but they were 
the first successes that influenced the spirits of both sides 
in the opening campaign. 

Napoleon wrote to Murat a criticism on his conduct of 
the advance through the hills that showed how the master 
was more prudent than his enterprising subordinate. He 
told him he was scattering his regiments too much both 
in the advance and in action. He should always keep a 
solid striking force in hand. 

On the nth, the pine-clad hills of the Thuringian forests 
had been left behind. Lasalle by a lucky stroke captured 
a large Prussian convoy of five hundred wagons, including a 
useful pontoon train. Next day Napoleon wrote to Murat, 
' Inundate the plain of Leipzig with your cavalry, instead 



148 JOACHIM MURAT 

of only sending a few patrols in that direction.' He was 
anxious to make sure that his right front was clear of the 
enemy. It was presently to be his right rear as the Grand 
Army swung round facing westward towards Jena and 
Auerstadt, to attack the masses of the enemy reported in 
that direction. The result of the cavalry being thus flung 
out to the north-east was that it was only by hard march- 
ing they arrived in force on the battlefields of 14 October. 
At Auerstadt, where the more serious action of the two 
was fought (though the presence of the Emperor has made 
Jena the more famous), Davout had only the cavalry 
attached to his army corps, some 1700 sabres. More 
than 8000 were in action with the Emperor at Jena. At 
the close of the day, Murat with D'Hautpoul and Nan- 
souty's cuirassiers and Klein's dragoons thundered into 
the streets of Weimar, on the heels of the enemy, and 
collected thousands of prisoners in the gathering darkness 
of the autumn evening. 



THE PURSUIT AFTER JENA 149 



CHAPTER X 

THE PURSUIT AFTER JENA — WARSAW — THE 
EYLAU CAMPAIGN 

1806-1807 

PRUSSIA had been living for twenty years on the 
fame of Frederick the Great. Her power had 
been shattered in two weeks. It was now Murat's 
task to destroy whatever fragments were left of it, in one 
of the most marvellous pursuits recorded in military 
history. 

The beaten army was streaming away to the westward in 
several columns, which presently turned first northward 
and then north-westward. Napoleon, advancing directly 
on Berlin with the main body, detached two corps to support 
Murat's pursuit. ^ 

On 15 October, the day after the battles, Murat fell on 
the rearmost body of the enemy outside Erfurt, capturing 
in the first rush a large convoy of supplies and 800 prisoners. 
Riding round the town, he cut off the retreat of some 
thousands of the enemy who had crowded into its streets. 
General MoUendorf and the Prince of Orange-Nassau, who 
were in the town, refused Murat's summons to them to 
surrender, and tried to obtain conditions which he rejected. 
It must be ' surrender at discretion,' or he would attack. 
With only his cavalry in hand, he knew that to storm 
Erfurt would be a risky enterprise. But Ney's corps 
arrived to his support, and then the German generals 
surrendered, with 14,000 men, half of them wounded from 
the battlefield, and more than 100 guns. Then Murat, 

^ See Map p. 150, The Pursuit after Jena. 



150 JOACHIM MURAT 

leaving Ney to dispose of the prisoners, continued the 
pursuit. 

He had already pushed Klein's dragoons and Lasalle's 
light horsemen forward in advance. They had got in touch 
with a column of 15,000 men under the Grand Duke of 
Weimar. Unable to stop the march of this large force, 
they hung on its flanks and rear, Murat had discovered 
that the main body of the enemy under Prince Hohenlohe 
had turned northwards by the Gotha-Magdeburg road. 
He therefore contented himself with keeping Weimar's 
retirement under observation, pushing on between him 
and Hohenlohe, so as to prevent their junction, and follow- 
ing up the latter, collecting numbers of prisoners in repeated 
attacks on the rearguard. 

On the 20th, Murat was before the fortress of Magde- 
burg. Hohenlohe had crossed the Elbe there, and was 
retiring north-westward. Bliicher and Weimar were cross- 
ing the river lower down, Murat summoned General 
Kleist, the commandant of the fortress, but the Prussian 
declared he would hold out to the last, A division of Ney's 
corps was left to blockade the place, and Murat with the 
main body of the cavalry division turned eastward along 
the south bank of the Elbe, The heads of the French 
columns advancing on Berlin were reaching the crossings 
of the river above Magdeburg. Murat's mission was to 
cover the advance, push on to Berlin, and regain touch 
with the retreating enemy to the north or north-west of 
their capital. The whole of his cavalry was across the 
Elbe on the 22nd, and pushed on by forced marches towards 
Berhn. Lasalle's light cavalry occupied the suburb of 
Charlottenburg. Grouchy and Beaumont's dragoons, and 
D'Hautpoul's cuirassiers arrived in quick succession. The 
fortress of Spandau, which protects the capital on the 
westward, was summoned. The commandant refused to 
surrender to a mere mounted force, but capitulated next 
day on the appearance of Lannes' corps. The same day 
(25 October), Napoleon rode in triumph into Berlin. 

Reports of spies and messages from the cavalry detachments 



I 

I 






§ 

I 



ill 



I 



# 



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OH 



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'^'^ 






THE PURSUIT AFTER JENA 151 

that were keeping in touch with the enemy's retreat showed 
that Hohenlohe was trying to work round to the north of 
BerUn, in order to reach east Prussia by way of Stettin. 
Lasalle with Murat's advanced guard had pushed on to 
Oranienburg, north of Berlin, early on the 25th, and the 
same afternoon his patrols, sent out on all the roads radiat- 
ing from the city, were again in touch with the enemy. Murat 
was hurrying to his help, followed by the infantry and 
artillery of Marshal Lannes. On the 26th, Lasalle routed 
Schimmelpfenning's cavalry division, which was acting as 
a flank guard to Hohenlohe's retreat. Next day, Hohenlohe 
was marching directly eastward on the main road towards 
Stettin, and Murat gradually closing on him by following a 
line of march that would bring him across his track at 
Prenzlau. Milhaud's chasseurs, thrown out to harass the 
flank of the Prussian army, were attacked by superior 
numbers near Boitzenburg and driven back, but Murat, 
hurrying in the direction of the firing, came to Milhaud's 
rescue with two regiments of cavalry and a horse battery, 
checked the pursuit, and cut off and captured some of the 
cavalry of the Prussian Guard. 

Hohenlohe marching in the darkness before dawn, in 
the hope of shaking off Murat's pursuit, was entering 
Prenzlau, early on 28 October, when the French cavalry 
came galloping into the streets and headed him off in the 
suburbs of the town. During the morning there was hard 
fighting in and around the place ; Murat, by repeated attacks 
with his cavalry and horse artillery, keeping the Prussians 
engaged till Lannes could come up. Before the infantry 
appeared, he had secured the outlets of Prenzlau towards 
Stettin, and flung a screen of patrols out on every road 
round the town. As the heads of the French infantry 
columns came in sight, he summoned Hohenlohe to sur- 
render, and after a fruitless attempt to obtain favour- 
able conditions the Prussian general capitulated. Prince 
Hohenlohe, Prince Augustus of Prussia, 14,000 infantry, 
and 2000 cavalry became prisoners of war, and forty-five 
standards and sixty-four guns were the trophies of the day. 



152 JOACHIM MURAT 

Next morning, Milhaud captured six regiments of cavalry 
and three battalions of infantry that had separated from 
the main body, and Murat sent Lasalle with two regiments 
of hussars to summon Stettin. After some hesitation, the 
governor surrendered the fortress on condition that his 
garrison was to march out with the honours of war. Lasalle 
had sent back to Murat, asking him to hurry up some of 
Lannes' infantry, but when the time came for the march 
out, not an infantryman had appeared. The Prussians, 
once outside the place, seeing that they had been bluffed 
into surrender by a handful of hussars, got out of hand 
and prepared to resist. Bayonets were being fixed and 
cartridges handled when Lasalle charged into them, 
scattering them in all directions. At this moment Victor 
arrived at the head of a division of infantry, and the skirmish 
ended by the Pnissians throwing down their arms. 

On receiving the news of the surrender of Hohenlohe's 
army, and the capture of Stettin, Napoleon sent Murat his 
warmest congratulations. ' My brother,' he wrote to him 
from Berlin on 30 October, ' I must compliment you on 
the taking of Stettin. If your light horsemen can capture 
fortified places in this way, I shall have to disband my 
engineers, and melt down my siege guns. But you have 
stiU to catch General Bliicher and the Duke of Weimar. 
March down the Oder, and pursue them at the sword's 
point even to Stralsund. There must be no rest till these 
two columns have laid down their arms.' 

Bliicher had united the two columns, and abandoning 
the idea of directly reaching East Prussia, was marching 
through Mecklenburg, intending to reach Stralsund and 
the Isle of Riigen, and thence transfer his troops by sea to 
Konigsberg. By a forced march in the two last days of 
October, Murat headed him off, Lasalle taking 3500 prisoners 
at Anldam. Cut off from Stralsund, Bliicher turned west- 
ward, marching towards the free city of Liibeck and the 
Danish frontier. Murat's cavalry were at his heels, and 
in frequent action with his rearguard, while the corps of 
Bemadotte and Soult followed by forced marches. On 



THE PURSUIT AFTER JENA 153 

5 November, Bliicher reached Liibeck. That morning 
Murat's cavalry charging his rearguard captured a battery 
of eight guns. 

The magistrates of Liibeck protested against the entry 
of the Prussian army into their city; but Bliicher took 
no notice of their proclamation of neutrality, and marched 
in with bayonets fixed. The unfortunate city, which had 
no part in the quarrel, was attacked on 6 November by 
the infantry of Bemadotte and Soult, after Murat had 
driven the Prussian rearguard into the streets. Bliicher 
was forced to abandon Liibeck. To prolong the resistance 
there would have been to be invested, for Murat's horse- 
men and light artillery were working round the outskirts of 
the place. Leaving 2000 killed and wounded in the streets, 
and 6000 prisoners and most of his guns in the hands of 
the French, Bliicher retreated to Ratkau, on the Danish 
frontier. He hoped to be allowed to take refuge in Denmark, 
but he found a Danish army corps barring his march in 
battle array. Here the protest against a violation of 
neutrality was backed up with cannon and bayonets, and 
Bliicher with men and horses weary with the long retreat, 
and most of his guns and ammunition convoys lost, was 
in no position to carry matters with a high hand, as he had 
done at Liibeck. Murat's cavalry were already forming 
to make the furious charge that would prelude the advance 
of Bemadotte and Soult's columns, when Bliicher sent 
a flag of truce to ask for terms. In the afternoon of 
7 November, the old veteran of Frederick's campaigns sur- 
rendered with 15,000 men, and Murat wrote to the Emperor, 
' Sire, the fighting is over, because there are no more com- 
batants left. The cavalry corps is about to start on its 
march to rejoin the Grand Army at BerUn.' 

The pursuit had lasted three weeks. It is true that 
again and again it was the arrival of the infantry that com- 
pelled the surrender of the enemy, but it is none the less 
true that it was Murat's untiring energy that had found 
and kept touch with them, headed them off, and held them 
till the slower marching corps sent to support him could 



154 JOACHIM MURAT 

arrive and complete the work he had begun. Some 
50,000 prisoners and 200 guns had been taken. The 
defeat of Jena had been turned into a disaster. Prussia 
no longer had an army, except a handful of troops in East 
Prussia. 1 

As in the year before, the tardy movements of the Russians 
had left their allies to be destroyed singlehanded by Napoleon 
in the first weeks of the war. They were now coming into 
the field, and moving towards the Vistula. At the end of 
October, Benningsen had about 60,000 men concentrated 
round Grodno, and Buxhowden 50,000 at Wilna. Rein- 
forcements to the extent of 20,000 more were marching 
up from the Turkish frontier. In aU the Czar would put 
about 150,000 men in the field for the winter campaign in East 
Prussia, and on the Polish borders. His unfortunate ally. 
King Frederick William, had only left of his army Lestocq's 
corps (20,000 men) in East Prussia, and smaU garrisons 
in Dantzic, Graudenz and Thorn. 

The Grand Army had been reinforced by Mortier's corps 
(the 8th), and a new corps, the 9th, formed of south German 
troops, under the command of the Emperor's youngest 
brother. Prince Jerome Bonaparte. Magdeburg had sur- 
rendered to Ney ; Davout had been sent to occupy Posen. 
The Grand Army 200,000 strong, with its headquarters at 

^ General von Horsetzky, in his Feldziige der letzten Hunderi Jahre 
(Wien, 1894), thus tabulates the marches of Murat and the main body of 
the Cavalry Reserve in this famous pursuit : — 

Oct. 14. On the battlefield of Jena. 
,, 15. At Erfurt. 
,, 16. ,, Langensalfza. 
,, 17. ,, Nordhausen. 
,, 18. ,, Halberstadt. 
,, 20. Before Magdeburg., 

" 25! ^! sJSndau. 1^70 kilometres (168 miles) in eight days. 
,, 28. ,, Prenzlau. J Hohenlohe surrenders. 
,, 29. „ Stettin. Surrender of Stettin. 

Nov. ^4! ;; SchwS''°'^^"^^''°'"l32°^^^°"^«tres (200 miles) in ten 
,, 6. ,, Liibeck. j ^ ' 

,, 7. ,, Ratkau. j Surrender of Blucher. 

Total about 800 kilometres (500 miles) in tvventy-four days. Some 
regiments and divisions had covered greater distances; there were 
sometimes marches of 40 to 50 miles. 



200 kilometres (125 miles) in six days. 



THE PURSUIT AFTER JENA 155 

Berlin, was concentrating for its next task. It was to meet 
the Russians beyond the Vistula, and at the same time dis- 
pose of the Prussian garrisons in Silesia, and liberate Poland 
by driving out of it the small Russian army of occupation. 

Prince Jerome was given the easy task of the conquest 
of Silesia. Murat was given the hardly more difficult but 
the more important mission of carrying the Emperor's eagles 
into the heart of the old Polish kingdom. 

The army with which he was to invade Poland was 
formed of Davout's corps (already in movement on Posen, 
which it occupied on 9 November), the corps of Lannes 
and Augereau, and the main body of the Cavalry Reserve, 
some 80,000 men in all. Some of the cavalry divisions 
that had done the hardest work of the pursuit were left 
behind. The others were given German remounts to 
make up for their losses. The cuirassier divisions had not 
been employed in the forced marches in the north, and had 
had a long rest. Three divisions of cuirassiers, two of 
dragoons, and the hght cavalry of the 3rd corps formed 
the mounted force, with which Murat pushed on in advance 
of the infantry columns on the road to Warsaw, after 
having spent a week with Napoleon at Berhn. 

There he had heard from the Emperor something of his 
plans for the future. The prospect of the Grand Duchy 
of Berg developing by annexations into an important 
state on the east bank of the Rhine, and of Murat's coronet 
becoming a crown, was made impossible by the long 
settled scheme of marrying Jerome to a Wiirtemberg 
princess, and creating a kingdom for him in Westphalia, 
which would include some of the very territories Murat had 
hoped would be his own. Berg and Cleves were prosper- 
ing under the administration of his friend Agar, Count of 
Mosbourg, but Murat had no great longing to return to 
his obscure court of Dusseldorf, where he had only spent 
a week of his reign. The coming march into Poland, the 
occupation of Warsaw, Napoleon's yet imdefined plans 
for restoring the Polish nationahty, opened out a wider 
horizon for Murat than a petty state in the Rhineland. 



156 JOACHIM MURAT 

For some weeks to come he looked on Poland as his future 
kingdom. Prince Jerome, notwithstanding the Westpha- 
lian project, was dreaming the same flattering dream ; 
but Murat knew nothing of this, and if he had known would 
not have considered Jerome's ambitions a serious obstacle. 
In the old days, the PoUsh nobles had more than once 
chosen as their elected king a brilUant soldier. For a 
nation of horsemen, what better candidate for the crown 
could there be than the famous cavalier who had proved 
his prowess on so many battlefields, and whose accession 
would make a sister of Napoleon Queen of Poland ? 

From the very beginning of the Warsaw campaign 
Murat was preparing for the part he hoped to play. It 
was then he adopted, instead of the uniform of a French 
marshal, a gorgeous costume of his own invention, intended 
to make him appear hke one of themselves when he met 
the Polish nobles in their semi-oriental state apparel. 
When on 28 November he rode into Warsaw, at the 
head of the ist Chasseurs and Beaumont's brigade of 
dragoons, his charger's bit and stirrups were of gold, his 
saddle cloth a tiger skin, and he himself was ablaze with 
gold and colour. He wore red leather riding boots, white 
breeches, a tunic that showed only a mass of gold embroidery, 
a diamond hilted sword of scimitar shape, suspended by a 
jewelled baldrick, a pelisse and shako of costly furs, the 
latter with ostrich and egret plumes held by a diamond 
clasp. The people received him with the wildest outburst 
of enthusiasm. ' He entered the old capital of Poland,' 
writes the Duchess d'Abrantes, ' a splendid type of that 
chivalrous valour, which is the distinctive characteristic 
of the Poles. He pleased that brave and most impression- 
able people, which was ready to follow with ardent devo- 
tion a young prince, who they knew would ride into an 
enemy's batteries as lightheartedly as other men would 
go to a ball.' 

The advance on Warsaw and the occupation of the city 
were not opposed. The garrison had retreated across the 



WARSAW 157 

Vistula into the Praga suburb, and destroyed the bridge. 
They retired when the French crossed the river above and 
below the city, but during the first days of the occupa- 
tion, while Murat held a kind of military court in Warsaw, 
hostile sentinels watched each other from the wharves on 
opposite shores of the Vistula. 

Murat had at first every reason to suppose that his dreams 
would be realized. The Polish nobles formed a brilliant 
circle at his receptions, and spoke freely of their hope of 
seeing the kingdom restored under a prince of the Emperor's 
family. Prince Poniatowski, the brother of the last Polish 
king, and one of the soldiers of the wars of the partition, 
came to Warsaw to greet Murat as the personification of his 
country's hopes, told him that he had no thought of himself 
aspiring to the crown his ancestors had worn, and gave the 
French marshal the sword of the heroic King of Poland, 
Stephen Bathori. In a letter addressed to Murat he wrote : — 

' We have treasured religiously the arms of the great men 
who once made Poland illustrious, and we consider it a duty 
to place them in the hands of those whom public opinion 
marks out as belonging to the foremost rank of men. On 
these grounds it is that I venture to ask your Imperial High- 
ness to accept the sword which I take the liberty of offering 
to you. It was kept by the last kings of Poland. It formerly 
belonged to Stephen Bathori, one of the most valiant of our 
sovereigns, and was used in some of his most brilliant victories. 
Entrusted to your Highness's hands it will resume after a lapse 
of centuries the glorious task in which it has already been 
employed, and will perhaps fight once more for our Father- 
land.' 

On the blade there was this inscription : — 

'OFFERT PAR JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI 

A JOACHIM, GRAND-DUC BERG. 

STEPHANUS BATORI REX POLONIiE, 

A.D. 1575. 

MUTATO HEROE PRO PATRIA TAMEN, 1807.'! 

-^ ' Presented by Joseph Poniatowski to Joachim, Grand-Duke of Berg. 
Stephen Bathori, King of Poland, a.d. 1575. With another hero, but 
still for the Fatherland, 1807.' 



158 JOACHIM MURAT 

The gifi. of the historic sword in such circumstances 
might well seem to Murat an earnest that the sceptre of 
Poland would soon be in his grasp. In his letters to Napoleon 
from Warsaw, without actually declaring himself a candidate 
for the Polish crown, he showed plainly enough what his 
hopes were. He told of his enthusiastic welcome, of the 
friendship shown to him by the nobles and the leaders of 
the people, of their devotion to the Emperor personally 
as their deliverer, of their hopes of seeing at an early date 
Poland reconstituted ' as an independent nation, under a 
King of foreign birth, given to them b}' his Imperial Majesty.' 

But Napoleon had not as yet decided anything, and he 
had still to fight for the possession of the Polish territory. 
The Russian army under Benningsen and Buxhowden 
was marching on Warsaw. In the middle of December, the 
heads of the Russian columns were on the river Narev, 
north-east of the Polish capital, and Napoleon, who had 
established his headquarters at Warsaw, had assembled 
the Imperial Guard, four corps of the Grand Army, and 
Murat's Cavalry Reserve on the line of the Vistula, north of 
the city and its tributary, the river Ukra, and then advanced 
to meet the enemy on the Narev. 

For the first and last time in his military career Murat 
was forced to let his cavalry di\dsions take the field without 
him. He w^as ill at Warsaw, when after struggling through 
rain and sleet, over muddy tracks where the guns' wheels 
sank in the ground, the opposing armies met at Golymin 
and Pultusk, and as the result of a day of hard fighting, on 
26 December, the Russians began a retreat, in which 
they abandoned some of their artiller}^ simply because the 
teams could not drag it through the deep mud. Murat, 
stiU very unwell, had hurried up from Warsaw when he 
heard fighting was imminent, but did not arrive till after 
the double battle of the 26th. This time there was to be 
no pursuit ; the \veather and the state of the roads made 
it all but impossible. He spent a few days installing the 
cavalry in rough wooden huts erected along the outpost 
line, so as to form a chain of posts against Cossack raids, 



WARSAW 159 

and then, leaving the command on the spot to Nansouty, 
returned to Warsaw. 

With the New Year of 1807 came snow and hard frost, 
and the country became again practicable for movements 
on a large scale. In January, there were tidings that the 
Russian retreat had been turned into a march first north- 
westward, then westward round the French positions, so 
as by a wide sweeping circular movement to enter East 
Prussia, pick up Lestocq's corps, and fall upon Bemadotte 
on the Emperor's extreme left. Napoleon, leaving a small 
force on the Narev to protect Warsaw from raids on that 
side, ordered the Grand Army to concentrate northwards, 
with its centre at AUerstein. Elaborate measures were 
taken to conceal the stroke which the Emperor was medi- 
tating. Benningsen was to be allowed to continue his march 
against Bemadotte on the left, under the impression that 
he was going to surprise an isolated corps, and when he was 
thoroughly committed to the movement, Murat's cavalry 
was to break in on his right rear, and cut off his communi- 
cations with Russia, the mass of the Grand Army following 
up the blow. A piece of carelessness revealed the plan to 
the enemy. The practice of using cipher for important 
dispatches was not used in the Grand Army, and success 
had made individual staff officers careless. A young 
officer conveying written orders, in which the coming 
operations were clearly indicated, was travelling in a sledge 
without an escort, just inside the outpost Hne, and felt so 
secure that he was actually sleeping rolled up in a rug, 
when, after dark, he was captured by a prowling patrol of 
Cossacks that had stolen through between the pickets. 
The captured dispatch told Benningsen what he had to 
expect. He countermanded the orders already issued, and 
began to retire northwards towards Konigsberg, with his 
rearguards on a line facing the advance of the Grand Army 
from northern Poland. 

The French followed him up in three columns, Ney on 
the left, Davout in command on the right. Napoleon him- 
self in the centre, with the main body of Murat's cavalry 



i6o JOACHIM MURAT 

preceding him. It was a trying march, for with the end of 
January the intense cold of the winter had begun, and 
men and horses plodded wearily over snow covered tracks. 
Benningsen had decided on making a stand at Preuss Eylau, 
with Konigsberg in his rear. In the first week of February, 
as he concentrated on his chosen battle ground, his rear- 
guards showed a bolder front to the French advance. On 
the morning of 6 February, Murat, with the advanced 
cavalry, came on a strong rearguard drawn up to oppose 
him near the village of Hof. There had been a partial 
thaw when the sun rose, and the hollow of the brook behind 
which the Russians were waiting was converted into a 
swamp. From the brook the ground rose gently to a belt 
of dark pine woods, along the margin of which twelve 
battalions were in line, with some guns on a rising ground 
to their left, and bodies of cavalry showing on both 
flanks, 

Murat had nothing but his horsemen and Hght artillery 
in hand ; but a few miles away the corps of Soult and 
Augereau, under the Emperor's personal command, were 
coming up in a long marching column. It would have been 
common prudence to content himself with merely skirmish- 
ing with the enemy, and keeping them imder observation 
till the infantry and field batteries were ready to come into 
action. But this was not Murat's way. For him * to see 
the enemy and to charge him, was the same thing.' Reck- 
less of the force opposed to him and the strong position it 
held, he flung his horsemen into action. Even before his 
main body had come up, his advanced guard, formed of 
Colbert's dragoon regiments, was sent struggling through 
the thawing marshes along the brook, and launched upon 
the enemy in a reckless charge, from which it came back 
with many empty saddles. Colbert's men rallied and were 
joined by Klein's division, and then charged again, riding 
for the batteries on the left. They got in among the guns, 
temporarily captured four of them, and then were driven 
back by the fire of the infantry. While they were still 
in action the ist Cuirassiers arrived, the leading regiment of 



THE EYLAU CAMPAIGN i6i 

D'Hautpoul's division, and covered the retirement of the 
dragoons. 

So far there had been only failure. Murat had brought 
his light artillery into action. D'Hautpoul's cuirassier 
division had come up and formed in a long line. They 
had just rolled their cloaks and waited breathing their 
horses, a splendid mass of steel-clad horsemen. The ist 
Cuirassiers reformed after their charge had joined the 
division. On their flank, Legrand's eclaireurs, the van- 
guard of the infantry, had come up. Suddenly, Uke a flash 
of light and colour, Murat in his brilliant Polish costume 
came galloping to the front of the cuirassiers. Reining 
up his horse for a moment, rising in his golden stirrups, 
and without drawing his sword, he yelled out, ' Charge ! ' 
pointing with a jewelled riding whip to the enemy's left. 
Then he spurred forward with D'Hautpoul racing after 
him, and the cuirassiers breaking into a steady gallop, 
knee to knee, waving their long swords and shouting 
' Chargez I Rallions au prince ! ' Legrand's hght infantry 
were thrown forward, after the rush of horsemen, forming 
a long firing line to their left. Murat, still with sword 
undrawn, led straight for the guns. The storm of the 
charge burst into and over the batteries, and thundered 
round the squares on the Russian left. Everything gave 
way before it. As the cuirassiers, after rushing the guns, 
turned upon the infantry, square after square broke. 
Klein and Colbert, eager to avenge their earlier failure, 
led their dragoons again into the battle. Legrand's firing 
line closed on the enemy. The Russian cavalry, coming to 
the rescue of the broken infantry, were themselves driven 
back by the heavy charge of the cuirassiers. Murat was 
in the thick of the victorious melee. One would have 
thought that his very dress, his gold and diamonds, would 
have made him the centre of fierce attacks by the enemy's 
best swordsmen, but he came out of the fighting without 
a scratch, though his fur pelisse was torn with bullets. The 
Russians retired through the woods, leaving more than 
1200 killed and wounded on the ground: 800 prisoners, 



THE EYLAU CAMPAIGN 163 

escort had posted himself on a rising ground near the 
cemetery of Eylau. Through a lull in the storm the 
Emperor caught sight of Augereau's broken line, and point- 
ing to the Russian attack, said to Murat : * Nous laisseras-tu 
devorer par ces gens-ld ? ' ' Are you going to let those fellows 
eat us up ? ' 

His answer to the appeal was the famous charge that 
saved Augereau's corps from utter destruction. Six divi- 
sions of cavalry were hurled upon the advancing Russians 
in three successive waves. First came Murat, leading the 
two divisions of light horse ; then Grouchy with the three 
divisions of dragoons ; last, D'Hautpoul at the head of his 
regiments of cuirassiers. A mass of some 18,000 horse- 
men rolled down upon the Russian centre, breaking through 
two successive lines of infantry that had hurriedly formed 
squares to meet the attack. In the fog of the snowstorm 
some of the Russian regiments were ridden down before 
they could form. In other cases squares were broken up. 
Sixteen standards were taken. The first rush of the charge 
only stopped when it came upon the third line, the Russian 
reserve. At this final stage of the attack Napoleon sent 
Bessieres with the mounted grenadiers, and the Chasseurs 
of the Guard, his own escort, to Murat's help. This fresh 
onset broke even the third line, and then the victorious 
cavalry came riding back. They had disengaged Augereau's 
beaten infantry, and forced Benningsen to devote all his 
energies to reforming his own line, and reduced him for a 
while to a purely defensive attitude. Murat had success- 
fully charged an army and averted a disaster. 

When darkness ended the fight the armies were still in 
contact. During the afternoon Napoleon had been strongly 
reinforced, and could expect further help early next day. 
Benningsen had had every available man in action, and 
did not expect that his wearied troops would be able to 
hold their own against superior numbers if the battle were 
renewed. He had lost 18,000 men, including 9 of his 
generals, and 24 guns had been captured. Before sunrise 
on^the 9th he was retiring on Konigsberg. 



i64 JOACHIM MURAT 

Murat followed him wdth his cavalry, their ranks sadly 
thinned by the losses of the day before, and by the numbers 
of men and horses that had succumbed to the terrible 
weather. He came on the enemy's rearguard near Witten- 
berg, about six miles from Konigsberg, But this time there 
was no fighting. Murat, surprised that he heard no 
firing when his advanced patrols approached the Russian 
outposts, rode forward and saw his hussars fraternizing 
with the Cossacks. They had come out to meet the French- 
men, making signs of friendship, and were now exchanging 
drinks of brandy and vodka and cigars. A Russian general 
came forward, and shook hands with one of Murat's officers, 
and said the war was over ; they were all tired of killing 
each other. Some of the Cossack troopers shook hands 
with the hussars, saluting them by saying, ' Braves Frangais ! ' 
but they had no more French at their command. There 
was a tacit truce, and some officers of Russian regular 
cavalry rode out to fraternize with the Frenchmen. 

That Murat accepted such a situation is a plain proof 
that his own horses and men were near exhaustion point. 
He wrote to the Emperor : ' I feel sure that the enemy will 
not hold on to Konigsberg ; indeed, I expect he has already 
left it. This afternoon I took the courtesies of the Cossacks 
and of their lancers and hussars to be a good-bye to us. I 
would bet that I am not mistaken.' 

However, he was wrong. The Russians were not yet 
abandoning East Prussia, and there would still be hard 
fighting before the war ended. But neither side was in 
condition for fighting amid the ice and snow of the 
Baltic coast country. For the first time in his career 
Napoleon was glad to break off the struggle for a while, 
retreat from a field of victory, and place his army under 
shelter in the towns and villages and in huge camps of 
wooden huts, till the spring. The old custom of going into 
winter quarters, supposed to have disappeared with the 
eighteenth century, had been perforce revived. 



HEILSBERG, FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT 165 



CHAPTER XI 

HEILSBERG, FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT — THE SPANISH 
ADVENTURE 

1807-1808 

DURING the winter, while the loth corps (Lefebvre) 
besieged Dantzic, the rest of the army had a 
long rest in its cantonments along the line of 
the river Passarge. The cavalry corps was on the left 
about Elbing. Remounts were collected, recruits were 
brought from the depots in France, and by the spring 
Murat had 20,000 effective and well mounted men under 
his command. As the weather improved, there were 
manoeuvres of large bodies, and in a final review before 
the Emperor at Elbing, Murat was able to show him 
18,000 men manoeuvring with clock-work precision. A 
general reorganization of the whole army had been in 
progress during the winter. By the beginning of May 
Napoleon had, besides Murat's cavalry, 150,000 men in 
his camps along the Passarge, and some 75,000 more in 
Poland, and in Silesia, and other parts of Germany. 

Benningsen had remained during the winter at Konigs- 
berg, where Frederick William of Prussia was holding his 
court under the protection of his ally. The Russian general 
had also been reinforced, but to a much less extent than his 
opponent. He had at most a little over 100,000 men at 
his disposal in the spring. There were many complaints 
that he did not attempt something against the French, 
while Dantzic still held out, but he waited from week to 
week in the hope of further reinforcements. It was not 
till the end of May 1807, when Dantzic had fallen and 



i66 JOACHIM MURAT 

Napoleon was concentrating his army to advance on 
Konigsberg, that at last Benningsen moved. 

Murat, after the great review at Elbing, had gone to 
Dantzic on 28 May to visit Lefebvre and see the cap- 
tured fortress. It was there he received a message from 
the Emperor's chief of the staff, Berthier. It infonned 
him that Ney's corps, the only one on the north bank of 
the Passarge, where it formed an advanced outpost line 
for the amiy, had been suddenly attacked in force. The 
Grand Army was concentrating for the counter-attack, 
and Murat was to bring up aU his cavalry from Elbing by 
way of Mohrungen. 

Ney made a dogged resistance at Guttstadt, and though 
he lost some ground, he gained time for the concentration. 
Benningsen, on the morrow of his first success, foimd that 
a superior force was gathering to crush him, and began his 
retreat north-eastwards. Lestocq's Prussians fell back 
on Konigsberg, the main Russian army retiring on Heils- 
berg, where there was a partly entrenched position in which 
they intended to make a stand. Murat had crossed the 
Passarge, on 9 June, following up the Russian rear- 
guard, and reoccupying Guttstadt. Next day, with the 
advanced-guard made up of Soult's infantry and artillery, 
Espagne's cuirassiers, and twelve regiments of light cavalry 
under Lasalle, he came in sight of the position of Heilsberg. 

The Emperor had already decided to force Benningsen 
to abandon the lines of Heilsberg b}^ sending Davout 
to work round his left, and threaten his flank and rear. 
Murat, without waiting for this movement, and on his 
owTi initiative, attacked at once with the advanced-guard. 
The result was hea\'3' and imnecessary loss before the 
Russians evacuated the position. The cavalry was en- 
gaged mth a superior force of eighty Russian squadrons, 
and there was hard hand to hand fighting. Murat 
had a narrow escape. Charging beside Lasalle, at the 
head of the hussars and chasseurs, he had his horse killed 
under him. He caught and mounted a riderless horse, 
but was hardly in the saddle again when he was cut off 



HEILSBERG, FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT 167 

and surrounded by a party of Russian dragoons. He 
was fighting for his Ufe, when Lasalle in person arrived 
to the rescue, cutting down several of the enemy. A 
few minutes later, Murat saved Lasalle's Hfe in the melee. 
' We are quits now, my dear general,' he said, grasping 
his hand. It was because Murat, Prince of the Empire, 
Grand Duke of Berg, and Marshal of France, was thus 
ready to risk his Hfe and fight like a man in the ranks, 
that all who followed him felt an admiring devotion for 
their daring leader. 

But with this dash and daring there was the lack of 
sound judgment that had produced the premature attack 
on Heilsberg, and equally brave but less reckless officers 
wondered at the risks he took. Thus in relating another 
incident of the same day, the charge of Espagne's cuirassier 
division. Colonel de Gonneville, who commanded one of 
these magnificent regiments, with all his admiration, cannot 
refrain from well founded criticism : ' The Grand Duke 
of Berg,' he says, ' came up from our right rear followed 
by his staff. He dashed at full gallop across our front, 
bending forward on the neck of his horse, and as he passed 
rapidly by General Espagne he shouted to him the one 
word — " Charge ! " Fifteen squadrons, without support, 
were being set in motion to attack sixty squadrons of 
splendid cavalry, by this brief order, without further ex- 
planations, and it seemed to me all the more strange 
because to close with the enemy we had to pass a difficult 
ravine in twos and fours, and reform under fire within 
two hundred paces of his front lines.' 

The charge was successful simply because with that 
strange lack of enterprise, which so often characterised 
Russian cavalry,^ they waited for the cuirassiers to reform 
instead of charging them while they were still engaged 
in the process. The losses of the day were heavy. The 
comparatively small force engaged had 7000 men killed 
and wounded, and the cavalry had a large part in these 

1 Compare, for instance, the mass of Russian cavalry at Balaclava, 
remaining at the halt to receive Scarlett's charge of the Heavy Brigade. 



i68 JOACHIM MURAT 

losses. In their charge across the ravine, one of the 
cuirassier regiments, the 6th, lost seventeen officers out 
of twenty-two, and in the evening reorganized as two 
weak squadrons under the command of a lieutenant. 
Napoleon was justly displeased with such unnecessary 
expenditure of life. Perhaps this was why he diverted 
Murat's energies to a subordinate operation, sending him 
with the left wing (the corps of Soult and Davout), to 
follow up the detachment of the allies that was retiring 
on Konigsberg. 

This was why Murat had no part in the final victory of 
Friedland on 14 June. On the morning of the battle the 
Emperor had sent an order to him and to Lannes to rejoin 
the Grand Army, leaving Soult before Konigsberg. Next 
day Murat overtook the cavalry which was pursuing the 
Russians, and commanded the pursuit as far as the Niemen. 

When on the morning of 19 June he came in sight 
of the frontier river at Tilsit, Bagration, who commanded 
Benningsen's rearguard, had passed his troops across \vith 
the exception of his Cossack cavalry. These were the 
only Russians on the left bank. Murat was forming his 
horsemen in two lines to charge them, as a prelude to an 
attempt to force his way over the river into Russian 
territory, when a staff officer rode out from the enemy's 
ranks with a flag of truce. He handed to Murat a letter 
from the Czar addressed to Napoleon. The Emperor had 
come up with his staff and his escort of the cavalry of the 
Guard. Murat gave him the letter, which proved to be a 
request for an armistice. The war was at last ended. 

Then came the negotiations that led to the famous 
meeting of the Emperors on the raft in the middle of the 
Niemen, and the Treaty of Tilsit, with its pubhc and secret 
articles — the practical recognition of Napoleon as the 
dictator of the Continent, the alliance of Alexander with 
him as his helper in projects for the reshaping of the 
world. 

Murat cherished to the last a hope that out of the new 
combinations the Emperor was elaborating there would 



HEILSBERG, FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT 169 

come a throne for himself — perhaps in Poland. Early 
on the morning of the meeting between the emperors he 
put on his splendid Polish dress, and went to greet Napoleon. 
Perhaps the Emperor disliked this reminder of Murat's 
ambitions, for he turned abruptly on him saying : ' Go 
and put on a general's uniform. You look like a circus 
rider' {Vous avez I'air de Franconi). Murat obeyed, and 
appeared in the brilliant group of marshals that surrounded 
the Emperor on the bank of the Niemen wearing the uniform 
of a cavalry general, with the Legion of Honour, and the 
Golden Fleece that had been sent to him from Spain by 
Godoy. The Czar gave him the Cross of St. Andrew to 
add to his decorations — a poor substitute for the crown 
of Bathori and Sobieski, Prince Jerome Bonaparte had 
been given the new kingdom of Westphalia, under the 
arrangements of Tilsit, a kingdom that Murat had dreamed 
of as a possible development of his Grand Duchy on the 
Rhine. Napoleon had found kingdoms for all the three 
of his brothers who consented to be his satellites — Joseph 
in Italy, Louis in the Netherlands, Jerome in Holland, 
Joachim Murat, his brother by marriage, who had done 
more dangerous work for him than all three, had only his 
coronet and a handful of German subjects. He looked 
for compensation of some kind, and when he returned to 
Paris with the Emperor, he persistently devoted himself 
to bargaining for such increase of his territory in the Rhine- 
land as would make Berg a state of some importance, 
and give him a more ample revenue. 

He did not stop on his way to visit the duchy. He was 
quite content to leave its government in Agar's hands. 
His home was not at Dusseldorf, but in Paris, where 
Carohne had been holding a court of her own at the Elysee 
during his long absence. She shared her husband's 
ambitions, and had for a while hopes of being welcomed 
at Warsaw as the Queen of Poland. She had used all 
her influence to forward his projects with the Emperor's 
friends and advisers. At the Elysee, she dispensed an 
all but royal hospitality, and she was a prominent figure 



170 JOACHIM MURAT 

at every great social gathering in Paris, where her elaborate 
costumes and her display of jewels outshone all competitors. 
If the gossip of the day did not wrong her, she had more 
than one lover, among them Junot, then governor of Paris. 
Napoleon was inclined to believe the story, and had an 
angry scene with Junot on his return. Murat either did 
not hear the stories that were public property, or refused 
to attach any importance to them. When Caroline wel- 
comed him home, husband and wife became fast allies in 
the promotion of their common interest with reference 
to the Grand Duchy. 

From August 1807 to January 1808 there was a pro- 
longed discussion between Napoleon and his Foreign 
Minister, on the one side, and the Murats on the other, as 
to questions of territorial compensation for the Grand 
Duke, and a minor dispute as to his position at the Imperial 
Court. To take the less important question first, Murat pro- 
tested that as it had been agreed that in the Confederation 
of the Rhine, the Grand Duke of Berg should have royal 
honours, he and his wife should take rank at the Tuileries 
next after Napoleon's crowned brothers, and their \vives. 
Napoleon had decided that princes and princesses of the 
Imperial family, when in Paris, should rank according to 
their seniority in the family itself. The result was that 
Murat, though an independent sovereign, ranked as the 
husband of Caroline after Borghese, the husband of her elder 
sister, Pauline, who was a mere titular prince, mthout an inch 
of territory. Napoleon rejected his plea for precedence. 
In reply to a final appeal of Murat's he wrote to him : — 

* Your rank in my palaces is fixed by the rank you hold in 
my family, and your rank in my family is fixed by that of my 
sister. I cannot allow j^ou to hold the position of a foreign 
prince at my court ... A foreign prince only comes to Paris 
as an occasional visitor, and does not habitually reside there. 
I can the less consent to it, because if you were treated as a 
grand duke, j'^ou would lose thereby, as I have decided that 
the long established usage in France is to be followed, and 
that the brothers and sisters of the emperor are to take the 
precedence of grand dukes and grand duchesses. A different 



HEILSBERG, FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT 171 

decision would be contrary to the prerogatives of France and 
the dignity of my crown. The grand dukes have replaced the 
electors, and the electors always came after the royal family 
. . . You are too much attached to the glory of my family 
not to feel how disagreeable it would be to Frenchmen to see 
the Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Grand Duke of 
Wiirzburg, the Margrave of Baden, take precedence of my 
family in Paris. This is so absurd that it has never entered 
into any one's head ; and the title of brother and sister which 
I use to such dignitaries is only a courteous fiction, which 
gives them rank next after my real brothers and sisters.' 

Murat was silenced and not satisfied. But he and 
Caroline, if they could not have royal honours at the 
Imperial court, could yet assert their ideas of their dignity 
by a more than royal ostentation, a display of wealth 
and state that rivalled that of the Emperor and Empress 
and outshone all others. At the Elysee, and during the 
stay of the court at Fontainebleau in the late summer, 
their banquets and receptions were the talk of Paris. The 
dinner service was of gold ; the rooms were lavishly 
adorned with masses of costly flowers, a crowd of servants 
in liveries of red-and-gold waited upon their guests. 

The festivities for the marriage of Murat's niece 
Antoinette, the daughter of his brother Pierre, celebrated 
at Paris in the autumn, were even more elaborate than 
the fete which Caroline gave on the occasion of Jerome's 
marriage with Catherine of Wiirtemberg. Antoinette 
Murat, daughter of a small farmer, became the bride of 
a prince. She was married to the heir of the Catholic 
branch of the HohenzoUerns, Prince Charles of Hohen- 
zollem-Sigmaringen.i 

Napoleon, during the long debates on the future of Berg, 

1 The marriage was a very happy one. On his wife's death in 1847, 
Prince Charles wrote to one of the Murats, that she had been ' an angel 
of goodness, and the faithful companion of his life,' in which her loss 
made a blank of everything. Her eldest son, Prince Antony of Hohen- 
zoUern, was the father of that Prince Leopold of HohenzoUern whose 
candidature for the Spanish throne led to the Franco-German W^ar of 
1870. By her marriage with the Prince of HohenzoUern-Sigmaringen, 
Antoinette Murat was also the grandmother of the King of Roumania, 
Queen Stephanie of Portugal, and the Countess Marie of Flanders, 
mother of the present king of the Belgians. 



172 JOACHIM MURAT 

remained on the best of terms with his brother-in-law. 
On the occasion of Antoinette's marriage, his wedding 
presents were the title of princess for the bride, granted 
when the marriage contract was still being arranged, and 
the gift of a fine house in Paris, the Hotel de Breteuil, in 
the Rue de Rivoli. He took Murat with him on a flying 
visit which he made to northern Italy in December, And 
finally, in the affair of Berg, he did not treat him ungener- 
ously. 

The arrangement arrived at was that three outlying 
portions of the old Prussian territory, which historically 
were part of the Duchy of Cleves, but were surrounded 
by the territory of Louis' kingdom of Holland, forming 
enclaves inside the Dutch frontier, should be ceded by Murat 
to Holland. He was also to cede to France the fortress 
of Wesel. In return he was to receive a considerable 
territory on the German frontiers of his Grand Duchy. 
Murat raised persistent objections to the cession of Wesel. 
There was even a moment when he indulged in gasconad- 
ing talk about throwing himself into the fortress with his 
little army of Berg and Cleves, and defying Napoleon, 
to take the place from him. ' We shall see,' he said,'' if the 
Emperor will venture in the face of Europe to besiege me 
there, and if he does I shall hold out to the last extremity.' 

Notwithstanding such foolish outbursts, the affair was 
at last arranged. Murat ceded the scraps of outlying 
territory — Huyssen, Sevenaer, and Malbourg — to Louis, 
and Wesel to the Emperor, and obtained possession of the 
abbey districts of Elten, Essen, and Werden — the same 
that he had disputed with Bliicher in 1806 — the Prussian 
territory of La Marck, the city of Miinster, and the Prussian 
part of the territory depending on it, and the territories 
of the counts of Lingen, Solms, and Tecklenburg, which 
had been Prussian for a century. In all he was given 
an addition to his Grand Duchy of 146 square miles, and 
362,000 inhabitants, raising the total number of his subjects 
to nearly a million and a quarter. 

The treaty was signed on 20 January, 1808. In 



THE SPANISH ADVENTURE 173 

February Murat was preparing to leave Paris with Caroline, 
visit and take formal possession of his new territories, 
and transfer his capital from Dusseldorf to the city of 
Miinster, when all his plans and the whole course of his 
hfe were changed by an unexpected order from the Emperor. 

After the Treaty of Tilsit, England was the only enemy 
that still opposed Napoleon's ambitions. By a secret 
article of the treaty, Denmark was to be forced into the 
Franco-Russian alliance, its fleet seized and the Sound 
closed against the British flag. England, warned by 
a secret service agent, anticipated the blow by attack- 
ing Copenhagen and seizing the Dano-Norwegian fleet. 
Having been disappointed in the north, Napoleon set 
himself to secure the Mediterranean ports, and those of 
the Spanish Peninsula. The Ionian islands were handed 
over to a French garrison by Russia. The Illyrian ports 
were occupied in the Emperor's name. Pius VII refused 
to close his harbours against the British flag, and the Papal 
territory was invaded and annexed to the Empire. Portugal 
still clung to the English alliance, and a British fleet was 
in the Tagus. Napoleon arranged with Godoy, the dis- 
solute and venal dictator of Spain, in whose hands the 
feeble king, Charles IV, was a mere puppet, a treaty for 
the partition of Portugal. Part of the kingdom was to 
be annexed to the Empire. Godoy was flattered with the 
prospect of the remainder being formed into a princi- 
paHty for himself. A French army under Junot marched 
through Spain, invaded Portugal, and occupied Lisbon. 
The royal family took refuge on board a British fleet, and 
sailed for Brazil. 

On the pretext of supporting Junot's expedition, strong 
French detachments were posted in northern Spain. To 
weaken the Spanish power of resistance, the best of 
the Spanish warships were ' invited ' to join the French 
squadron at Toulon, and a Spanish army was transferred 
to northern Germany to do garrison duty with their French 
allies. It was generally expected that Napoleon's poHcy 
would be to bring Spain into the imperial system, not 



174 JOACHIM MURAT - 

by annexation, but by a marriage between a French 
princess and Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, the heir 
of the old king. Then there would be the control of 
Spanish policy by French advisers, a treaty of offensive 
and defensive aUiance and commercial treaties that would 
place the development of Spain's resources in French 
hands. The imperial troops in northern Spain were 
therefore to be considered as friends and allies. But 
there was a widespread suspicion that the Emperor had 
not yet revealed his real poHcy, and that these allies might 
prove to be invaders in disguise. 

By the beginning of 1808 the French army of occupa- 
tion in Spain had grown into a formidable force. General 
Dupont was in Leon, with his headquarters at Valladohd ; 
Marshal Moncey was in Old Castile, with his headquarters 
at Burgos ; a division under General Mortier was in Navarre 
and Biscay ; a whole army corps under General Duhesme 
was in Aragon and Catalonia. These commanders were 
allowed to believe that, now that Junot had secured 
Portugal, they would soon be engaged with an allied 
Spanish force in an attack upon the English at Gibraltar. 
Each had so far acted independently, reporting to and 
receiving orders from the War Office in Paris. But the 
time had come to give a central direction to the French 
forces in Spain, by appointing a commander-in-chief, 
and at the same time send to Madrid a lieutenant of the 
Emperor, on whom he could rely to support energetically 
the further developments of his Spanish policy. Napoleon 
chose Murat for this double mission. 

The secret was kept up to the very last moment. Murat, 
busy with his preparations for his journey to Dusseldorf 
and Miinster, had an interview mth the Emperor on the 
morning of 20 February, in which not a word was said 
about Spain. In the evening he was handed two letters, 
one from Napoleon, the other from the Minister of War, 
The minister's letter informed him that he was to start 
that same night for Bayonne, in order to take over the 
command of all the French forces in the]^Spanish Peninsula. 



THE SPANISH ADVENTURE 175 

The Emperor's letter appointed him his Ueutenant-general 
in Spain, and enclosed detailed instructions as to the first 
steps he was to take. He was cautioned that the utmost 
secrecy was to be observed, but he was not given any in- 
formation as to Napoleon's ultimate intentions. It was 
enough for him to know what was to be done immedi- 
ately. 

Murat was startled at what looked like hostile projects 
against Spain, when he read in the Emperor's instructions : — 

' You will write to the (Spanish) commandant-general of 
Navarre that it is necessary for you to occupy the fortress 
of Pampeluna. I am at peace with the King of Spain, but 
since our common interests have obUged my armies to enter 
Spain, it is necessary that their communications should be 
well secured. After the citadel of Pampeluna, the most im- 
portant is that of San Sebastian. You will have it occupied 
as well as all the fortresses between Valladolid, Pampeluna, 
and France. If the commandant-general of Navarre refuses 
to hand over the fortresses to you, you will use the troops 
of Marshal Moncey to compel him. As for the rest, there 
is no need of your entering into any communications with 
the Spanish court till I direct you to do so. The principal 
thing, before all else, is to occupy the citadel of Pampeluna. 
... As soon as the citadel is occupied by my troops, you 
will order the 3rd division of Marshal Moncey's corps to march 
from Vittoria to Burgos, so that Vittoria may be cleared for 
the reception of my Guard. If there is any delay about getting 
possession of the citadel of Pampeluna, you will have to move 
this division of Marshal Moncey's up to the place and make 
a serious demand for the citadel to be handed over to you.' 

There was no time to ask for further explanations. 
There was a hurried farewell to Caroline, and while Paris 
slept, Murat drove out of the southern barriers on the 
road to Bayonne and the Pyrenees, wondering whether 
peace or war was before him. 



176 JOACHIM MURAT 



CHAPTER XII 

MURAT LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF THE EMPEROR 
IN SPAIN 

1808 

MURAT remained at Bayonne till 7 March. From 
his headquarters there he directed the move- 
ments ordered by the Emperor and collected 
reports of the military position in Spain, but he felt his 
position very embarrassing in the absence of all know- 
ledge as to the ultimate trend of Napoleon's policy. From 
Bayonne he wrote to him : — 

' I thought I had deserved a little confidence on the part 
of your Majesty, and perhaps I ought not to have expected 
to find myself here without being able to know beyond a certain 
point what preparations I am to make for the military move- 
ments in which I may have to take part. For it is not easy 
to organize a transport train, when one does not know whether 
it is to be prepared for a long expedition or for an affair of a 
few days.' 

Pampeluna had admitted a French garrison to its citadel. 
At San Sebastian difficulties were raised, and Murat feared 
that he would have to precipitate matters by the use of 
force. To avoid this he had recourse to a piece of trickery. 
He wrote to the Duke of Mahon, the governor-general of 
Guipuzcoa, saying that on account of the healthiness of 
San Sebastian he proposed to establish a military hospital 
there, and would send some depot companies to the citadel 
to carry out the work. 

The duke replied with a polite letter objecting to the 
proposal. Murat wrote to him again insisting on his 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 177 

project. The French army, he said, had entered Spain 
as friendly alhes. The sick were not safe in the villages, 
exposed to the attacks of evil disposed persons. They 
must be in an hospital, inside the walls of a fortress, and 
it would be a scandal if this were refused. At the same 
time, he moved towards San Sebastian some detachments 
of the Imperial Guard which had just crossed the frontier. 
The duke had only four hundred men in his garrison, and 
he yielded to the veiled threat, for he feared to provoke a 
conflict. He stipulated that if the court at Madrid did not 
approve of his action the French were to evacuate the 
citadel. In his report to Napoleon, Murat joked about the 
simplicity of the Spanish grandee, who expected that once 
in the citadel the French would pay any attention to orders 
from the imbecile king of Spain. 

Godoy had been for a long time one of his correspondents. 
He had sent him the Golden Fleece long before this, and 
invoked his protection with the Emperor. Writing to 
Napoleon from Bayonne, Murat acknowledged that till 
now he had been mistaken about Godoy's position. ' The 
last news from Madrid, he said, * announces that the alarm 
there is at its highest, and that the Prince of the Peace 
(Godoy) is generally detested by all Spaniards, a thing I 
did not believe till now.' The queen, generally believed to 
be Godoy's mistress, was, he said, involved in the hatred 
felt for the prime minister. As for the king, he counted 
for nothing and inspired only contempt. The discontent 
with the Government was in fact so deep and widespread 
that ' there would be an insurrection, only that the people 
are fully persuaded that your Majesty will change the 
administration.' Deputies had been chosen by the people 
of Guipuzcoa and Navarre to meet Napoleon on the 
frontier and offer him the keys of their cities. ' These 
provinces already regard themselves as French. Public 
feehng could not be in a better disposition.' 

On 3 March Murat received orders to move his head- 
quarters from Bayonne to Vittoria. The Emperor im- 
pressed on him the necessity of seeing his troops had 

M 



178 JOACHIM MURAT 

plenty of camp-kettles and good boots, but gave him no 
information as to his plans. On the nth Murat wrote 
from Vittoria : ' I hasten to report to your Majesty 
my arrival at Vittoria, and the extraordinarily friendly 
reception I have had all the way from the frontier to this 
city. A lieutenant of yours coming to Spain to take 
possession of it in your name, and with the consent of 
all Spaniards, could not be better received. I was met 
at the frontier by a deputation of the States of Guipuzcoa, 
and as I entered the territory of each commune, the magis- 
trates came to assure me of their feelings of devotion 
and admiration for your Majesty. In a word, and to sum 
it all up, I found on my journey the people lining the road- 
sides. Their outbursts of rejoicing were almost like mad- 
ness. From village to village, all along the way from 
Irun to Vittoria, there was nothing but dancing and shouts 
of " Vive Napoleon \" ' 

He had not been two days at Vittoria when he was 
told to move on to Burgos. He had the same friendly 
reception there. Napoleon had written that he would 
soon arrive himself, and Murat informed the authorities 
at Burgos that they might expect the Emperor before the 
end of the month. 

But now Murat's reports began to be less optimistic. 
There was disquieting news. The court of Madrid was 
becoming seriously alarmed at the steady flow of French 
reinforcements over the Pyrenees, the occupation of the 
northern citadels, and the seizure of the citadel of Mon- 
juich, on the heights above Barcelona, by a sudden move- 
ment of the French, an act of violence the commandant 
feared to resist. Godoy had ordered Solano's division 
of Spanish troops, which had marched into Portugal with 
Junot, to return at once to Spain, and he had said openly 
that the French were acting as enemies, and it was time 
to prepare for resistance. Duhesme reported from Barce- 
lona that French and Neapolitan soldiers had been stabbed 
in the streets. Napoleon treated this report as of no 
importance. He wrote to Murat : ' There is no dis- 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 179 

content at Barcelona. General Duhesme is an old woman. 
The Neapolitans have had a few stabs with the stiletto. 
It is the way of the inhabitants. For the rest, people are 
well disposed, and when one has the citadel one has every- 
thing.' 

But the agitation at Barcelona was rea.lly serious. In 
the evenings groups of Spanish soldiers paraded the town, 
joining the people in hostile demonstrations against the 
French. Elsewhere there were reports of assassinations 
of French soldiers, and a proclamation was issued, impress- 
ing on the officers the necessity of enforcing the strictest 
discipline and avoiding all causes of offence to the inhabi- 
tants. Napoleon, disregarding all reports of disaffec- 
tion, and considering that once he had command of the 
capital, he would be master of the country, had already, 
on 7 March, written to Murat to occupy the passes in 
the mountains between Burgos and Madrid, and transfer 
his headquarters to the latter city. On 16 March 
Murat reported from Aranda that in conformity with 
these orders, Moncey's corps had occupied the Somo Sierra, 
and that two divisions under Dupont would be at Guada- 
rama on the 19th. Next day, the 17th, from Fresnillo 
de la Fuente, he reported that he had news from Madrid 
of much excitement there on, rumours that the royal family 
were about to imitate the Braganzas, and leave the country, 
embarking at Cadiz ; that the king had tried to allay 
the agitation by a proclamation protesting that he would 
not leave Madrid, but Murat suggested that this might 
be a device of Godoy's to keep things quiet till he could 
take the king away to Seville or Cadiz, and that the move- 
ment of Solano's corps from Portugal was connected with 
some such scheme. 

While Murat was writing these letters, the agitation 
had ended in a popular rising against Godoy. The court 
was at Aranjuez near Madrid. On the 17th the people 
crowded round the palace and the house of Godoy. 
The soldiers fraternized with them. Godoy's house was 
stormed, and the minister was roughly handled, and barely 



i8o JOACHIM MURAT 

escaped with his hfe. On the i8th the king pubHshed 
a proclamation, depriving him of all his dignities. Then, 
as the armed agitation continued, he announced his own 
abdication in favour of Prince Ferdinand. 

Murat, continuing his advance on Madrid, heard the 
first news of the Aranjuez revolt at Castillejo on 19 
March. The information he received pointed to Beau- 
harnais, the French ambassador at Madrid, having used 
his influence on the side of Ferdinand. Murat's letter 
to the Emperor was full of anxiety and perplexity. He 
told of his sorrow at the prospect of bloodshed, and his 
fears that Europe would say that the approach of the 
French troops had been the signal for the rising, and that 
the ambassador had encouraged it. 'I represent your 
Majesty here. Sire,' he wrote, ' I command your armies, 
and assuredly no one in Europe will believe that I am at 
their head without knowing your plans.' He appealed 
to Napoleon to remember that his own imperial fame 
was involved, and begged for some clear direction as to 
the course he was to follow. Next day, in another letter 
written from Buitrago, after referring to reports of mob 
violence at Madrid and Aranjuez, he wrote : — 

' What afflicts me most deeply, is that all these disorders 
are committed to the cry of ' Vive VEmpereur I Vive VAmbas- 
sadeur de la France ! ' I am sure your Majesty will be as pained 
as I am. It is my duty for the honour of the French name 
to put a stop to such horrors, and thus to remove every pre- 
text for malevolent attempts to accuse us of having incited 
them.' 

He went on to say that he hoped Ferdinand would 
maintain the French alliance, but if he chose it would be 
just as easy for him to provoke a revolt against it. Once 
more he asked for directions as to the attitude he was to 
adopt towards the Spanish court when he reached Madrid. 
' If your Majesty,' he wrote, * would only repose more 
confidence in me, one word as to your real plans would 
sufhce. I would answer with my head for their accom- 
plishment.' 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN i8i 

Napoleon, who knew what he wanted, took the news 
of the Aranjuez outbreak much more calmly than his 
lieutenant. He told him he could not understand his 
fears for the future. He could only repeat to him that 
he must ' solidly establish ' his troops in occupation of 
Madrid, give them a rest, and see that discipline was 
maintained, and abundant supplies collected. ' Treat 
the king well and the Prince of Asturias and everybody. 
Tell them you know nothing, and are waiting for me. 
What has happened at Aranjuez is very lucky, and the 
certainty that the king will not go away is a great gain. 
I await your news from Madrid ' ; and in a second letter 
he said : ' You are always complaining that you have 
no instructions. Nevertheless I am continually sending 
them to you, when I tell you to give your men a rest, com- 
plete their supplies, and do nothing to prejudge the question. 
It seems to me that you have no need to know more.' 

On the same day that he wrote thus to Murat, Napoleon 
offered the Spanish crown to his brother Louis. He wrote 
to him that there had been an insurrection at Aranjuez, the 
king had abdicated, and the ' Grand Duke of Berg ' would 
by this time be at Madrid with 40,000 men. He intended 
to make a French prince king of Spain. Would Louis 
accept the crown ? In that case Holland would be annexed 
to France. The whole matter might be arranged in a 
fortnight or it might require some months. Louis was 
to take no one into his confidence as to this offer, ' for 
things like this must be accomplished facts before one 
admits to anybody that one has even been thinking of 
them.' Louis after some hesitation replied that he pre- 
ferred to remain king of Holland. 

On 23 March Murat entered Madrid at the head 
of his troops. Early in the morning he had reviewed 
them on the heights overlooking the city, drawing up 
his whole force in battle array. It was not a mere piece 
of display, for he was thus ready to convert a friendly 
parade into an attack, if there was any show of opposition. 
But he was able to report to the Emperor, that ' the army 



i82 JOACHIM MURAT 

was received with the livehest demonstrations of friend- 
ship. The inhabitants of all classes offered wine to the 
troops.' The fact was, that the people of Madrid, know- 
ing that Beauhamais was the friend of Ferdinand, thought 
that the French army had come to secure his succession 
to the throne. 

On 27 March, before the news of the entry into Madrid 
had reached him, but when he knew by previous letters 
that it had already taken place. Napoleon wrote to Murat : — 

' My brother, I have received your letter of 20 March, by 
which I see that you will be at Madrid on the 23rd. I shall 
therefore soon have news from you from that city. I can 
only repeat to you the orders I have already given to con- 
centrate the corps of Generals Moncey and Dupont at Madrid. 

. . You may post some men at the Escurial ; but you ought 
to let all your forces be seen at Madrid, especially your fine 
regiments of cuirassiers . . . You will maintain public order 
at Madrid, and prevent any arming of the people. Use 
M. de Beauharnais for this purpose till my arrival, which you 
may announce to be imminent.' 

The date and contents of this letter, and of the next to be 
quoted, are very important in connexion with a question 
to be presently discussed. On 30 March the Emperor 
wrote, with reference to the events at Aranjuez : * I 
thoroughly approve of the course of conduct you have 
adopted in presence of unforeseen circumstances.' 

On 3 April Murat acknowledged, with hearty thanks, 
the Emperor's letter of 27 March. On the 5th he wrote 
to Napoleon : — 

* I have received your Majesty's letter of the 30th. It 
has made me very happy, for it has given me the certainty 
that my conduct in the most delicate circumstances in which 
I have ever found myself in all my hfe, has been approved by 
your Majesty.' 

Now with these four letters before one, is it possible 
to believe that after writing the letter of 27 March, and 
before writing that of the 30th, Napoleon wrote to Murat 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 183 

a long letter, severely blaming his conduct, discussing 
the Spanish situation, and his own plans at length, tell- 
ing Murat that his advance on Madrid had been too pre- 
cipitate, and had provoked disorders that would wreck 
all his projects, blaming him for calling up Dupont's 
divisions to the capital, throwing on him the responsi- 
bihty of aU that happened, and of troubles yet to come, 
— in a word making him, with a strange prophetic insight 
into the future, the scapegoat of the whole Spanish failure ? 
This document is an alleged letter of Napoleon to Murat, 
dated from Paris on 29 March, 1808. It was first pub- 
lished after the Emperor's death, by Las Casas in the 
Memorial de Ste Helene, a work based on notes of con- 
versations with the Emperor during the first year of his 
detention on the island. Las Casas introduces it with 
the following paragraph : — 

' Here is a letter of Napoleon on the Spanish affair, which 
throws more light on it than volumes could do. It is admir- 
able. The events which followed make it a masterpiece. It 
shows the rapidity, the eagle glance, with which Napoleon judged 
m.en and events. Unhappily it also shows how often his highest 
conceptions were ruined by the executive acts of his lieutenants, 
and in this respect the letter is a precious historical document. 
Its date makes it prophetic' 

It was reproduced in Montholon's Rdcits de la Captivite, 
and other memoirs of the time, and finally accepted as 
a genuine document by Thiers in his Histoire du Con- 
sulat et de V Empire. It was included in the great coUec- 
tion of the correspondence of Napoleon I, published by 
order of Napoleon III, but with a note to the effect that 
' neither a minute of it, nor the original, nor any authentic 
copy ' could be discovered, and that it was taken from 
Las Casas and Montholon's memoirs. 

Thiers was puzzled at its flagrant contradiction to the 
undoubtedly authentic letters of the Emperor to Murat, 
and tried to suggest a theory to account for this. But 
no theorizing can make it fit in with known facts. And 
the letter itself bears its own condemnation. It is dated 



i84 JOACHIM MURAT 

from Paris, but on 27 March Napoleon was not there. 
He was writing other letters from St. Cloud. Its open- 
ing words mark it as a fabrication ; by whom or when 
fabricated, is a mystery. Napoleon is made to address 
Murat as ' Mo7isieur le grand due de Berg.' He never 
began a letter to him thus. Up to August 1806 he always 
in his letters addressed Murat as Mon cousin, after that 
as Mon frere. In the alleged letter, he refers to his foreign 
minister as Mon ministre des affaires etrangeres ; but 
this was the style adopted years later under the Restora- 
tion. In the days of the Empire in Napoleon's authentic 
correspondence, it is always, ' Mon ministre des relations 
exterieures.' We may take it to be certain that the letter 
was never written by Napoleon,^ never received by Murat. 
Napoleon, instead of sending him long disquisitions on 
the affairs of Spain, left him in the dark as to his projects, 
and merely ordered certain military movements ; instead 
of blaming him for ' a too precipitate advance,' he sent 
him orders to march upon Madrid, and congratulated 
him on his occupation of the capital. Long years after 
this the supposititious document was produced by men 
who were anxious to show that their hero could not make 
a mistake, and who tried to prove that Murat had ship- 
wrecked his plans for Spain. 

Far from this, Murat, though kept in ignorance of 
Napoleon's intentions and suddenly confronted \^dth a 
most perplexing situation, had acted with remarkable 
discretion, and at the same time began to divine the general 
drift of the Emperor's policy. It certainly was no fault 
of his that this policy ended in disaster. 

He had been told to act with reserve towards the court, 
and avoid committing himself to any of the rival factions. 
On the eve of his entry into Madrid he received an appeal 
from the king's daughter, the Infanta Maria Louisa, ex- 
queen of Etruria, whom he had known in Italy. She im- 
plored his protection for her parents, the king and queen, and 

^ See the elaborate and convincing discussion of this matter by Comte 
Murat — Murat, Lieutenant de I'Empereur en Espagtw, pp. 145 et seq. 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 185 

for the fallen minister Godoy. She told him that the abdica- 
tion of Charles IV had not been a free act, but had been 
compelled by the violence of Ferdinand and his partisans, 
which had gone so far that the king believed his life was 
in danger. She appealed to Murat to intervene on behalf 
of the royal family, and suggested that he should come 
to Aranjuez to hear from the king and queen what had 
happened. 

Murat sent his aide-de-camp, General de Monthyon, 
to Aranjuez to report on the situation there, directing 
him to avoid giving any compromising pledges, but to 
assure the old king that he would be safe under the pro- 
tection of the French army, and dissuade him from a 
project of retiring to Badajos, which the Infanta had 
mentioned in her letter. Some biographers of Murat say 
that it was he who suggested to the king that his abdication 
should be withdrawn. This idea, however, was the king's 
own. He had recovered from his first fears when he 
found himself in touch with the French army, and he then 
regretted and withdrew his act of surrender. Monthyon, 
when he rejoined Murat's headquarters, reported that 
the king was anxious for the fate of Godoy, now a prisoner 
in the hands of the new government, and furious against 
his son, whom he accused of conspiring against his life 
and throne. 

It was now that Murat devised a project for giving 
the Emperor the opportunity of disposing as he wished 
of the Spanish crown, and making the royal family them- 
selves co-operate in smoothing the way for Napoleon's 
ambitions. Reassured by Monthyon, King Charles had 
abandoned the first idea of flight to Badajos, and said 
he was ready to ent:rust himself to the protection of the 
French arms. Murat was at the same time in communi- 
cation with Ferdinand's party. On the eve of the French 
entry into Madrid, the Duke de Parque had arrived at 
Murat's headquarters at the chateau of Chamartin, to 
offer him the compliments of the prince, and to announce 
his accession to the throne under the title of Ferdinand VII. 



i86 JOACHIM MURAT 

Murat knew that Beauharnais, the French ambassador, 
was in friendly relations with Ferdinand, but did not know 
what were his instructions from Napoleon, and how far 
the ambassador was acting on his own ideas, how far on 
those of the Emperor. It was a difficult position. He 
took care to acknowledge the Duke de Parque's com- 
munication in guarded phrases that committed him to 
nothing. 

To the Emperor he wrote : — 

' The sight of a king stripped of his crown, will excite 
sympathy, and it wiU even be directed against his son, whom 
people can hardly avoid regarding as a rebeUious son, if, as 
the letter of the queen ^ seems to show, and as is generally be- 
lieved, it is true that he forced his father to abdicate the throne. 
If he (King Charles) comes to my headquarters, I shaU send 
him to your Majesty, and then Spain wiU be really without 
a king, for the father wiU have abdicated, and you will be in 
a position to refuse recognition to the son, whom one may 
regard as a usurper.' 

Having thus summed up the situation, he sent Monthyon 
back to the king and queen with a draft of a letter, which 
he suggested should be sent by Charles to Napoleon, in 
case he wished to make an effective protest against his 
forced abdication, and the revolution which had placed 
his son on the throne. The king and queen eagerly accepted 
the suggestion, and sent him the formal protest to be 
forwarded to the Emperor, together with a statement 
that ' for the sake of the happiness of his people ' King 
Charles now placed his crown in the hands of his Imperial 
Majesty, and left it to him to dispose as he judged best 
of the future of Spain. 

Murat at the same time tried, through the French 
ambassador, to persuade Ferdinand to defer his entry 
into Madrid as king. But the prince, nevertheless, made 

1 This was a narrative forwarded by the ex-queen of Etruria, and 
written by the queen of Spain in the form of a letter to her, beginning, 
' My dear daughter, You will explain to the Grand Duke of Berg the 
position of the king, my husband, etc.' It was preceded by a few lines 
addressed to Murat by the queen of Etruria. 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 187 

a state entry on 24 March, the day after the French 
had marched in. Ferdinand was enthusiastically received 
by the- people. He set at hberty a number of political 
prisoners, ordered a series of bull fights, to celebrate his 
accession, announced that in order to give abundance 
of employment, pubhc work would be begun on new 
canals and roads, and directed that the French officers 
and soldiers should everywhere be treated as friends. In 
reply to a message from Ferdinand, Murat had expressed 
his regret that he could not meet him till he had received 
formal orders from the Emperor to recognize his acces- 
sion. But Ferdinand, thanks to the ambassador Beau- 
hamais, did not doubt that this recognition would be 
given, and sent his brother Don Carlos to Paris to ob- 
tain it. 

Meanwhile the people of Madrid thought that the 
French general and his army were supporters of the new 
regime. Murat reported to the Emperor that day after 
day cheering crowds assembled in front of the palace 
where he had his headquarters, and when he rode out 
he was greeted with continual Vivas. Deputations of 
nobles, clergy, and people had waited on him, expressing 
their adniration for Napoleon as the protector of Spain, 
and their desire for his promised visit to Madrid. 

On 30 April the Emperor wrote, that he thoroughly 
approved of the line of conduct Murat had adopted. He 
directed that King Charles should be lodged at the 
Escurial, the great palace of Phihp II, twenty-seven miles 
north-west of Madrid, and that he should be regarded 
as king of Spain until the imperial decision as to who 
was to replace him. Murat suggested that Ferdinand 
should be invited to leave Madrid and go north to meet 
Napoleon on his way to the capital ; that as soon as he 
left Madrid, King Charles should be brought there, and 
that it should be officially announced that he remained 
king until the Emperor arrived to decide as to the 
succession ; and that as public feeling was hostile to the 
queen and Godoy, she should go to stay at some convent, 



i88 JOACHIM MURAT 

till things were quieter, and Godoy should be kept in 
prison. 

On I April the Emperor wrote to Murat, announcing 
that he was at Bordeaux ; on the 4th that he was at 
Bayonne, and two days later, he ordered the Prince of the 
Peace, Godoy, to be sent into France. He did not adopt 
the programme that Murat had forwarded to him. He 
had plans of his own, and perhaps did not like to see his 
lieutenant assuming to direct events. He told him not 
to talk about his arrival at Madrid, though he had already 
sent General Savary there ostensibly to see that all was 
ready for his coming. He now intended to settle the 
affairs of Spain on French soil at Bayonne. 

Twice he took occasion to find fault with his lieutenant 
on minor matters. The sword of Francis I, surrendered 
at Pavia, had been kept as a trophy at Madrid for more 
than two centuries. Murat suggested it would be a grace- 
ful act to restore it to France, represented by Napoleon. 
To the deputation which presented it to him to be sent 
to the Emperor, Murat made a high flown speech. Even 
the bravest might suffer misfortune, he said, and there 
was no disgrace in the French king having succumbed 
to Spanish valour at Pavia. In sending back his sword 
to the Emperor, they marked the new friendship of France 
and Spain, and linked together the glories of Charles V 
and Napoleon. 

The Emperor, when Murat sent him the sword with a 
report of his oration, replied that he had taken a lot of 
trouble over a matter of trifling moment. What was the 
sword of Francis to him ? Francis I was ' only a Bourbon,' 
besides he had been defeated by Italians. What had the 
Spaniards to do with it ? The Emperor's history was 
not reliable. Francis was not a Bourbon but a Valois 
king, and the Spanish infantry decided the day at Pavia. 
In another letter he told Murat he must not allow a Spanish 
mob to interfere with the discipline of his army. This 
was when a couple of soldiers, who had quarrelled with 
some Spaniards, and been arrested by a French patrol, 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 189 

were rescued by a crowd that took them to Murat's head- 
quarters, and asked and obtained their pardon. 

Savary's mission to Madrid was to invite Ferdinand 
to go to Bayonne to meet the Emperor there, and discuss 
the affairs of Spain. Savary had been well chosen for 
the purpose, for he was more of a police officer than a 
soldier, and at Bayonne Ferdinand would be as much 
a prisoner as a guest, though the prince, when he started 
on his journey, flattered himself that he was crossing 
the Pyrenees to obtain recognition of his claims. Murat 
was at the same time directed to see that the king and 
queen should also go to Bayonne. This was easy to 
arrange, for Charles IV no sooner heard of his son's de- 
parture than he was anxious to see the Emperor, to prevent 
Ferdinand using his influence against him, with the Dic- 
tator of Europe. Before starting on his journey the 
old king was allowed formally to nominate a council of 
Regency to govern in his absence. The general com- 
manding the French troops in the north of Spain had 
orders to conduct the Spanish royal family by force across 
the frontier if Charles or Ferdinand showed any hesi- 
tation about completing their journey. The French 
guards of honour and escorts provided on their way 
were really in the position of gendarmerie conducting 
prisoners of state, though, as it happened, there was 
no need of the iron hand ever coming out of the velvet 
glove. 

On 20 April Ferdinand reached Bayonne. On the 
2ist Godoy was sent there under the escort of Murat's 
aide-de-camp, Manhes. Next day the king and queen 
started on their journey escorted by General Exelmans. 

Murat was now in control at Madrid. He announced 
that the royal family were gone to meet the Emperor 
as friends at Bayonne, and that the affairs of Spain would 
soon be settled. To distract the minds of all classes from 
politics, he organized a series of fetes and bull fights, and 
he reported to the Emperor that all was quiet, and that 
the people would accept his decision. 



igo JOACHIM MURAT 

But in the last days of April there were signs of coming 
trouble. There were disturbances at Burgos and Toledo. 
In Madrid, itself, disquieting reports circulated. Men 
began to say that Ferdinand had been lured into a trap, 
that the French were not allies but would-be masters. 
One of Murat's aides-de-camp was stabbed in the crowd 
after a bull fight, and ran his assailant through, and a 
riot was averted with difficulty. But even after this 
Murat did not expect anything serious. It was a com- 
plete surprise to him when on 2 May — the famous Dos 
de Mayo — still an honoured anniversary in Spain, Madrid 
suddenly blazed out into revolt. 

Murat, with the regular soldier's contempt for any- 
thing that an undisciplined mob could do, had not paid 
sufficiently serious attention to the reports he received 
from day to day, as to the state of the capital. He had tried 
to maintain amicable relations with the Junta or Adminis- 
trative Commission that Ferdinand had left to repre- 
sent him at Madrid, and had even drawn on himself blame 
on Napoleon's part for being too complaisant to them. 
At the end of April he had received orders from the 
Emperor to send to Bayonne the ex-queen of Etruria, 
and aU the princes and princesses of the royal family. 
The Junta showed a strong disposition to oppose the 
departure of the ex-queen and the Spanish Prince Don 
Francisco, who was to travel with her. They had already 
sent a secret message to Ferdinand that the time was 
come to break with the French, and convoke the Cortes 
in some place not occupied by the invaders, and there 
was a plot in progress for Ferdinand's escape from Bayonne. 
On I May the Madrid Junta yielded to Murat's insistence 
that the ex-queen and the prince should set out for France 
next day. But there is no doubt that certain members 
of the Junta at once set to work to spread among the 
people the report that two more of the royal family were 
about to be carried off into captivity by the French. 

Murat received reports that numbers of peasants were 
flocking into Madrid, and that at the cafes where they 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 191 

met and drank together they paid no reckoning. One 
of his aides-de-camp, Rosetti, had become very friendly 
with his Spanish host, and the Spaniard advised him 
if possible, to obtain employment that would take him 
away from the city for a few days. But on the evening 
of I May, though there were the usual crowds in the streets, 
there were no signs of unusual excitement. 

Next morning it was different. A great crowd of towns- 
folk and peasants gathered before the royal palace. The 
crowd became very excited when three carriages drew 
up before the main entrance. Presently one of them 
drove away, conveying the ex-queen of Etruria, but still 
there was no opposition. The rumour ran through the 
people that the two others were intended for Don Fran- 
cisco and his uncle Don Antonio, and that the departure 
was delayed by the younger prince refusing to leave the 
palace. At this moment Major Lagrange, one of Murat's 
aides-de-camp, rode into the open space before the build- 
ing. There were shouts of ' They are taking them away 
from us,' and the people rushed upon the officer. He 
would have been murdered if the French guard posted 
at the palace had not dashed out to save him. Shots 
were fired at the soldiers. They rephed with a volley. 
Immediately the city blazed out into revolt. Every- 
where armed crowds gathered and attacked the posts 
of the French troops, and the houses where Frenchmen 
were lodging. A massacre of the foreigners began. 

Murat had only a small force actually in Madrid. He 
had near his own residence two squadrons of the cavalry 
of the Guard, a troop of Mamelukes, some companies 
of French marines, and a company of Basques. The 
French army, nearly fifty thousand strong, was outside the 
city in three camps more than two miles from the barriers. 
Murat mounted and put himself at the head of his small 
force, and sent his aides-de-camp galloping to bring in 
reinforcements. The cavalry soon came spurring into 
the city. Guns rattled after them. The infantry columns 
were not far behind. 



192 JOACHIM MURAT 

Murat's first efforts were devoted to clearing the long 
street that runs through Madrid, from west to east, divid- 
ing it into two parts, and forming the line of the Calle 
Mayor, Puerta del Sol, and Calle de Alcala. This thorough- 
fare would then be a base for attacks on the crowds in 
the cross streets. There was desperate fighting with no 
thought of quarter on either side. At the military hospital 
the French invalids were murdered in their beds. At 
the monastery of Atocha, where the monks joined the 
insurgents in firing from the windows, the Mamelukes 
of the Guard forced the gate and killed every one in the 
building. There was savagery on both sides. 

As soon as he had set his troops in movement, Murat 
had written to the Junta, telling them they must assist 
him in restoring order. 

' God knows ' (he wrote) ' that it is only the enormity of 
the outrages committed that has decided me to use force. 
Because that at my disposal is so imposing, I have been all 
the more reluctant to appeal to it, and I have endured many 
seditious provocations that ought to have been sooner repressed ; 
and I would reproach myself for my patience had it not been 
inspired by the noblest motives. But from this moment all 
tolerance ends. Tranquillity must be re-established, or the 
inhabitants of Madrid must expect to endure the consequences 
of revolt. Every gathering must disperse on pain of being 
destroyed. Till now I have reposed confidence in your words ; 
the time is come for you to justify me in this, by fulfilling the 
grave duties that the circumstances impose upon you.' 

Fortunately for him the Spanish garrison mostly re- 
mained confined to barracks, and took no part in the 
movement. Only the artillerymen at the arsenal opened 
the gates to the mob, allowed them to obtain arms and 
ammunition, and brought some of their guns into action 
against the French artillery, which was sweeping the 
streets with grape-shot. There were four hours of hard 
fighting before the French began to get the upper hand. 
Most of the insurgents refused to surrender, and even 
when a few men were driven into a corner they would 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 193 

dash in among the bayonets, knife in hand, hacking and 
stabbing till they were struck down, or would fire a last 
shot point blank at the nearest officer. At first, those 
who surrendered mostly gained little by it. They were 
marched to the nearest square and shot by order of a 
drum-head court-martial. 

Two prominent members of the Junta, DAzanzza 
and O'Farrill, had risked their own lives in saving those 
of Frenchmen, and in persuading parties of insurgents 
to disperse. Between four and five o'clock they came 
to Murat and promised that, if the French would cease 
firing, they would personally answer for the armed crowds 
breaking up before dark. Murat welcomed their offer, 
and sent his chief of the staff. General Harispe, and 
several other officers to assist them in their mission 
of peace. Harispe was directed to put a stop to any 
further summary executions. It was thanks to this 
intervention that, after hours of bloodshed, the fighting 
ended, 

Murat sent off a long report to Napoleon, dated ' 6 p.m. 
2 May.' He estimated the numbers of the insurgents 
at 20,000. He gave special praise to General Grouchy 
for his services during the day, and assured the Emperor 
that all danger was now over, and the city would be dis- 
armed. In this letter Murat only said that there had 
been great loss of life, but gave no details. Subsequent 
estimates are hopelessly contradictory. A manifesto 
issued by the friends of the revolt stated that the Spaniards 
lost about 200 killed and wounded, and the French 1500. 
The Moniteur declared that the French loss had been 
trifling, twenty-five killed and forty-five to fifty wounded, 
while the rebels had fallen in thousands. Murat, in a sub- 
sequent dispatch, stated that about 200 rebels had been 
summarily executed, and some 1200 more killed in the 
fighting. The truth will never be known. All that is 
certain is that the rebels paid dearly for their attacks 
on the invaders. 

Murat expressed the opinion to Napoleon that, though the 



194 JOACHIM MURAT 

event was unfortunate, it would ensure the peace of the 
capital, and he hoped of the kingdom also. He represented the 
outbreak as the work of the ' canaille,' and told how Spaniards 
of the better class repudiated it. Don Antonio, a prince 
of the royal house, had said, ' We are delighted with what 
has happened. They will not be able to tell us now that 
an army can be destroyed by a mob of peasants with sticks 
and knives.' 

Napoleon was not displeased at the news. It was his 
theory that nothing strengthened a Government so much as 
an abortive insurrection. He could not foresee that the 
Dos de mayo was the first wild flicker of a flame that would 
soon set Spain ablaze from the Pyrenees to Tarifa. 

Murat felt that the day's work had made him undis- 
puted master of Madrid. He had demanded from the 
Junta that he should be accepted as its president, and 
given command of the Spanish troops in the capital, and 
he had taken up his quarters in the royal palace. To 
Napoleon he wrote : — ' The results of the 2nd of May 
assure your Majesty of a decisive success. That day 
the Prince of the Asturias lost his crown. His party 
is completely beaten, and now ranges itself on the side 
of the conqueror. Your Majesty can dispose of the crown 
of Spain without any chance of peace being disturbed. 
Every one is resigned and waiting only for the new king 
whom your Majesty is about to give to Spain.' 

He had won Spain for Napoleon. He was the ' conqueror ' 
of 2 May, and he looked forward confidently to being chosen 
to found a new dynasty at Madrid. He had no suspicion 
that Napoleon had already decided that his brother Joseph 
should exchange the crown of Naples for that of Spain. 
But on the very day when Murat's cannon were sweeping 
the streets of Madrid, Napoleon was writing to him from 
Bayonne : — 

' I intend that the King of Naples shall reign at Madrid. 
I will give you the kingdom of Naples or that of Portugal. 
Reply to me at once what you think, for all this must be arranged 
in one day. You will meanwhile remain as Lieutenant-General 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 195 

of the Kingdom, You will tell me that you would prefer to 
remain at my side, but this is impossible. You have several 
children, and besides with a wdfe Uke yours you can come away 
if war recalls you to me ; she is quite capable of being at the 
head of a regency. I may tell you besides that the kingdom 
of Naples is much finer than Portugal, for Sicily will be added 
to it and you will then have six millions of subjects.' 

A year ago Murat would have gladly exchanged the 
Grand Duchy of Berg for Naples, even without the vague 
prospect of having Sicily also, in case the Emperor succeeded 
in driving the English and the Bourbons from Palermo. 
But now, when he was dreaming of being proclaimed King 
of Spain and Lord of the Indies, the offer of a choice 
between Naples and Lisbon was a bitter disappointment. 
He received the Emperor's letter on 5 May, and replied 
the same day, with effusive professions of devotion to 
his master : — 

' Sire. I have received your letter of 2 May, and torrents of 
tears flow from my eyes as I reply to you. Your Majesty knew 
my heart well when you thought that I would ask to remain 
beside you. Yes, I ask it ; yes, I implore it as the greatest 
favour I have ever received from you. Accustomed to your 
bounties, accustomed to see you each day, to admire you, 
to adore you, to receive everything from your hands, how 
can I ever, alone and left to myself, fulfil duties so important 
and so sacred ? I regard myself as incapable of it. I beg 
as a favour to be left with you. Power does not always mean 
happiness. Happiness is to be found only in affection. I 
find it when with your Majesty. Sire, after having expressed 
to your Majesty my sorrow and my desires, I must be resigned, 
and I place myself at your orders. However, using the per- 
mission you give me to choose between Portugal and Naples, 
I cannot hesitate. I give the preference to the country where 
I have already commanded, where I can more usefully serve 
your Majesty. I prefer Naples, and I must inform your Majesty 
that at no price would I accept the crown of Portugal.' 

It is a characteristic letter. Murat's strong feeling 
of disappointment finds vent in the exaggerated out- 
burst of affection for Napoleon, but does not prevent 



196 JOACHIM MURAT 

him from making his choice. He would not hear of 
Portugal, because at Lisbon he would be overshadowed 
by Joseph Bonaparte at Madrid. Napoleon received 
the letter on the 8th or 9th, and at once summoned his 
brother from Naples to Bayonne to receive the crown 
of Spain from the assemblage of Spanish notables, 
whom the Emperor had gathered there to keep up 
the fiction that the new king was the choice of the 
nation, on which he was to be imposed by the arms of 
France. 

There was a last hope that Murat might still obtain 
what he had hoped for. A friend of his, Laforet, had 
replaced Beauhamais as French ambassador at Madrid, 
and wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, De Cham- 
pagny, that ' the Grand Duke of Berg ' was popular in 
Spain, and the people would welcome him as their king 
in preference to the King of Naples. Champagny gave 
Napoleon the letter, and the Emperor wrote to Laforet 
that he was the dupe of flatterers, and went on to say, ' There 
would not be a single voice in favour of the Grand Duke, 
and there could not be. The Spanish nation was still 
in that state of hatred and humiliation to which recent 
events had reduced it, and its own amour-propre must 
make it desire less than any other the Grand Duke, who 
in one day had confounded its pride and shattered all 
its hopes.' 

The letter reached Laforet on 23 May, and he showed 
it to Murat. Its language seemed a poor appreciation 
of his services on the 2nd of May. It may have been 
a coincidence or it may have been the effect of dis- 
illusion and disappointment, but, whatever the cause, 
Murat fell iU. For nearly two days he would see no 
one. The doctors said it was the result of over- work. 
Laforet wrote to Napoleon begging him to send the 
sick man an encouraging letter, and hoping his own 
correspondence had not led to the illness of the Grand 
Duke. 

While Murat was still suffering, news came day after 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL IN SPAIN 197 

day of risings in the provinces. Unable to deal with 
the situation, he wrote from the chateau of Chamartin, 
near Madrid, a letter to Napoleon, asking him to name 
some one to replace him, and give him leave to return 
to France, and rest and restore his health at the watering- 
place of Bareges in the Pyrenees, Savary took over the 
command at Madrid, and Murat, travelling incognito, 
passed almost unnoticed through the north of Spain, 
carefully guarded from the very people who had hailed 
his coming with acclamations a few months ago. 

Joseph was meanwhile making his progress from Bayonne 
to Madrid, escorted by a French army that had to dis- 
perse a gathering of his subjects in the pitched battle 
of Medina de Rio Seco in order to open a way for him 
to his capital. 



igS JOACHIM MURAT 



A 



CHAPTER XIII 

JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 

1808-1812 

T Bayonne, on his way to Bareges, Murat met 
the Marquis de San Gallo, King Joseph's Minister 
of Foreign Affairs in the Government of Naples. 
His first act of sovereignty was to confirm him in his office, 
and give him full powers for the transfer of the crown 
of Naples. Thus, freed from the necessity of himself 
attending to a host of details, he went to the Pyrenean 
watering-place. In a few weeks he was restored to 
health. ' The fountain of youth is probably here,' he 
wrote on 14 July. ' The waters here are really 
miraculous.' 

At the moment of resigning the crown of Naples, Joseph 
had given the kingdom a new constitution, modelled 
on that of France, with a consultative chamber and a 
show of popular institutions. Everything else was arranged 
between San Gallo, Champagny, and Napoleon while 
Murat was taking the waters of Bareges. He had to 
make some sacrifices. The Grand Duchy of Berg reverted 
to Napoleon, but Murat stipulated that certain charges 
on its revenues that he had granted to friends and rela- 
tions should continue, amongst others, 3000 francs a year 
to his neice, the Princess of HohenzoUem-Sigmaringen, 
and 12,000 to Agar, Count of Mosbourg, who was presently 
to leave Dusseldorf for Naples. As, with his kingdom, 
Murat would enter into possession of palaces by the 
Mediterranean, he was required to renounce, in the Emperor's 
favour, his palaces and estates in France, Villiers-Neuilly, 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 199 

La Motte Heraye, the Hotel Thelusson, and Caroline's 
claim to the Elysee. He was to take a new name, and 
to be known to his Neapohtan subjects as ' Gioachimo 
Napoleone.' 

In the decrees and treaty that made him a king, his 
oihcial style was ' Joachim-Napoleon, par la grace de Dieu 
et par la constitution de I'Etat, Roi des Deux Siciles, 
grand amiral de I'Empire.' As yet only the continental 
territory of the ' Two SiciUes ' was to be his. The real 
Sicily was in the hands of the Bourbons and the English. 
Effectively he would be only King of Naples, and the 
name of Napoleon, added to his own, emphasized the fact 
that he would be only a tributary king, little more than 
a crowned prefect of the Empire. He was courtier enough 
to accept his new name as an honour. ' The crown that 
your Majesty has just given to us,' he wrote to the Emperor, 
' is no doubt a great gift, but you will permit me to rank 
still higher the honour you have done me in allowing me 
to bear your name. I appreciate all the value of this 
distinguished favour. I know what I am pledged to 
by the glory of this name. Your Majesty will never have 
to regret having made me one of your family.' 

The new reign was to date from i August, 1808, and 
on that day King Joachim Napoleon was proclaimed 
by the Council of State at Naples, a Te Deum was sung, 
and there were illuminations in the evening. But though 
Caroline was anxious to pose as a queen among her new 
subjects, Murat was in no hurry to end his holiday. From 
Bareges he went for a few days to Cauterets, and then 
to stay with Lannes at his chateau of Bouillas. On 
4 August he arrived at Paris. The Emperor had written 
to him two days before that he need not go at once to 
Naples. The weather was hot, and he might find it trying 
in southern Italy. He should take care of his health, 
for that was aU important. 

But when, a few days later. Napoleon himself arrived 
in Paris, he had changed his mind, and he urged Murat 
to start at once for Naples. Perhaps the reason was 



200 JOACHIM MURAT 

that Joseph had by this time discovered that with his 
new kingdom he had taken over a civil war in full work- 
ing order, and was regretting his bargain, and asking 
to be allowed to go back to Naples. Napoleon was, there- 
fore, anxious to instal Murat there as soon as possible, 
so as to put an end to Joseph's appeals. On i8 August 
the Emperor told him he must begin his journey south at 
once. On the 21st, Caroline and Joachim Napoleon 
appeared at a ball at the Hotel de Ville as king and queen 
of the Two Sicilies. Next day Murat started on his journey. 
Caroline followed him a fortnight later. 

At Milan he had a talk with the Viceroy Eugene on 
the affairs of Italy and their future relations. At Rome 
he was received by General MioUis, and the French army 
of occupation was under arms in his honour. Pius VII, 
stripped of his temporal power, was still at the Vatican, 
but Murat did not visit him, for the Pope had sho\vn no 
willingness to recognize him. The seizure of Rome had 
broken off all friendly relations with the Imperial 
family. 

On 6 September he entered Naples. He rode into 
the city wearing his brilliant battle uniform, but accom- 
panied only by a single aide-de-camp, the young Chef 
d'escadron La Vauguyon, the son of a noble family of 
the ' emigration ' that had made its peace with Napoleon. 
La Vauguyon was soon to be a general of the Neapolitan 
army. A cavalry escort rode with the king and his com- 
panion. Naples was en fete, and had erected triumphal 
arches, and hung its house-fronts with tapestry. On 
the Piazza del Mercatello two statues had been erected, 
one of Napoleon, the other of Caroline as the goddess Juno. 
Under an arch on the Piazza di Foria, the municipality 
"presented an address of welcome. At the church of Spirito 
Santo, Murat dismounted and assisted at a Te Deum 
sung by the archbishop. Cardinal Firrao. The crowds 
in the streets and squares greeted the new king with an 
outburst of southern enthusiasm, and in the evening the 
city was a blaze of light, rockets shot up from the sea 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 201 

front, and the ships and fishing-boats hung out Chinese 
lanterns. 

Next day Murat met his ministers and Departmental 
officials, and began to look into the affairs of his kingdom. 
He soon found that he could not do much till his man of 
business. Agar, arrived from Dusseldorf, where he was 
winding up the affairs of the grand duchy. King Joseph 
had not left King Joachim an easy task. The transfer 
of the crown had been accompanied by a simultaneous 
transfer to Spain of most of the French soldiers and 
civilians who had helped the Emperor's brother to govern 
his kingdom. 

Murat was naturally first interested in finding out what 
kind of an army he had at his disposal. The result of 
his inquiry was disappointing. All the best regiments 
had been sent to Spain to swell the ranks of the Imperial 
army of occupation in Catalonia. Joseph had taken 
away the Royal Guard — Frenchmen, dressed as Neapolitans, 
and now to adopt a Spanish uniform. For a while the 
new king would have to be content to have detachments 
of the French army of Italy keeping order in his dominions. 
As for the navy, his flag would fly only on a frigate, the 
Cerere, a corvette or armed yacht, and a few gunboats. 
The treasury was empty. Joseph had spent money freely 
and run into debt. He had inaugurated ambitious public 
works — roads, bridges, harbours — and there was no money 
available to keep them going. The treasury officials 
produced endless accounts to show that everything had 
been done according to the solemn laws of routine and 
red tape, and that if there was no money and much debt, 
no one was to blame for the financial chaos, that, in fact, 
there was no chaos, but orderly and systematic embar- 
rassment. Murat puzzled over returns and balance- 
sheets, and told them he did not pretend to understand 
accounts, but money must be found, and as for public 
works, he would see that henceforth nothing was under- 
taken till there were funds in hand to pay for it. 

For the moment, with the Civil List represented by 



202 JOACHIM MURAT 

claims the treasury could not meet, he was forced to fall 
back on his private resources. He and Caroline had 
been used for years to handle money freely and spend 
it lavishly. Till Agar arrived to put the finances in order, 
they had to fall back on their personal credit. To make 
matters worse. Napoleon, after taking over the French 
estates of the Murats, was not even paying King Joachim 
what was due to him as Marshal of France and Grand 
Admiral, and the French treasury was sending to Naples 
demands for the payment of the French troops in the 
kingdom, including arrears that Joseph had allowed to 
accumulate year after year. 

Murat had already reason to feel that he was not being 
generously or fairly treated by his Imperial brother-in-law. 
And to add to his discontent with his new position, Napoleon 
began to find fault with his public acts and write to him as 
if, instead of being ' King of the Two Sicilies,' he were only 
a French Governor of Naples. He had made up his mind 
that he would be really a king, and a popular king. During 
the very first month of his reign at Naples he had issued a 
series of decrees that at once secured for him the hearty 
loyalty of most of his new subjects. The ports were closed 
against the British flag under the general regime of the 
Continental blockade, and to prevent smugghng there were 
harassing restrictions on the fisheries, which were such an 
important national industry. These Murat at once 
abolished, to the joy of aU the coast population. Another 
decree put an end to the mihtary tribunals and the state 
of siege in Calabria. There was an amnesty for all deserters 
from the army. Political exiles were recalled and were 
to be allowed to return on taking an oath of allegiance. 
During Joseph's reign the property of relations of the 
emigres (that is, those who had gone to the Bourbons in 
Sicily) had been seized by the State. This property was 
now restored. Hundreds of prisoners under sentence of 
death for rebellion were reprieved, and all prisoners were 
liberated who were confined for minor offences. At the 
same time the rations of the Neapolitan soldiers were 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 203 

improved, and it was announced that all arrears of pay 
would soon be met, and, meanwhile, the men would be paid 
regularly on a more equitable scale. A royal guard of 
Neapolitans would be formed, several new regiments raised. 
These decrees were hailed with a grateful enthusiasm that 
augured well for the new reign. 

Marshal Jourdan, who had acted as Joseph's chief of the 
staff, had followed him to Spain. Murat appointed the 
Marquis de Perignon commander-in-chief of his army, and 
secured as executive commanders the French generals 
Cavaignac, Campredon, Lamarque, and Manhes. Salicetti, 
a Corsican, and a friend of the Bonapartes since early days 
at Ajaccio, was named chief of the police. Agar came to 
take charge of the finances and repeat the administrative 
success by which he had distinguished himself in the 
grand duchy. The rest of the ministers were Neapolitans. 

Murat had hardly arrived when he was busy with miUtary 
projects. Notwithstanding his limited resources he effected 
his first conquest in October, 1808. All through Joseph's 
reign the Bourbon flag had been kept flying on the island 
of Capri, at the very entrance of the Bay of Naples. Sir 
Hudson Lowe (the future gaoler of Napoleon) was in 
command of a mixed garrison of 2000 English and Sicilians, 
holding the fortified town on the island. Salicetti's spies 
obtained information that Capri was not prepared for a 
siege, for the peaceful possession of the island during long 
years had made an attack seem improbable. Murat 
reviewed the garrison of Naples on 2 October. The troops 
had hardly returned to barracks when a brigade and some 
batteries of artillery were ordered to prepare to embark, 
and an embargo was laid on all shipping in the port. Es- 
corted by the frigate Cerere, the corvette Renommee and 
twenty-six gunboats, the expedition was crowded on board 
a fleet of requisitioned transports. General Lamarque and 
the NeapoHtan general, Pignatelli Strongoli, were in com- 
mand. They landed on the island, and besieged the town 
on the land side while the flotilla blockaded and bombarded 
the sea front. On the i6th the garrison surrendered for 



204 JOACHIM MURAT 

want of food, just as a relief expedition was ready to start 
from Sicily. Murat announced his success to Napoleon 
by a dispatch from his minister, San Gallo, to the French 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Champagny. 

The Emperor, instead of congratulating him, wrote him a 
series of scolding letters. He was angry at the dispatch 
being addressed to Champagny, as if a foreign power were 
courteously sending news of victory to an ally. ' This 
is ridiculous,' he wrote ; ' Capri having been taken by my 
troops, I ought to have heard of this event through my 
Minister of War. You must take care in such matters 
to do nothing offensive to me and to the French army.' 
In other words, Murat must consider himself only as a 
French general commanding in southern Italy. 

Then there was sharp criticism of his administrative acts. 
' I have seen decrees of yours,' wrote the Emperor, ' which 
have no sense. You are drifting into reaction. Why 
recall the exiles and restore property to men who have 
arms in their hands and are conspiring against me ? I 
declare to you that you must take steps to cancel this decree, 
for I cannot endure that those who are contriving plots 
against my troops should be received and protected in 
your States. The decree as to the fisheries is not more 
prudent. It will be the means for the English to find out 
all the sooner what is going on. You are making sacrifices 
to a false popularity. It is ridiculous to cancel the seques- 
tration of this property and so provide support for those 
who are in Sicily. You really must have lost your head ! ' 

Another outburst was provoked by the news that, after 
the reconquest of Capri, Murat, doubtless thinking more 
of pleasing the Neapolitans than of any devotion to their 
patron saint, had driven to the cathedral in state in a royal 
carriage drawn by eight white horses, made a rich offering 
at the shrine of St. Januarius, bestowed gold medals 
on the canons, and the Order of the Two Sicilies on the 
archbishop, and decreed an annual grant of 2600 ducats 
to the chapter. Napoleon told him he was annoyed at 
seeing him ' aping ' the Neapolitans. Then he found fault 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 205 

with the form of King Joachim's decrees. Murat had on 
more than one occasion made it clear that he was endeavour- 
ing to improve on the methods of his predecessor. Napoleon 
saw in this a censure on the family. * I must point out to 
you,' he wrote, ' that I am extremely hurt at the everlasting 
declamations with which your edicts are filled against the 
king, your predecessor, who had all the thorns, while you are 
gathering the fruits, and to whom you owe eternal gratitude. 
I am annoyed at seeing that you so little understand what 
you owe to me and at your lack of courteous consideration.' 

Murat certainly was being kept in his place. And 
Napoleon began directly to interfere with the government 
of Naples, He ordered the confiscation of the property 
held by Spaniards, who had refused to accept King Joseph's 
rule, and directed that the confiscation should be carried 
out by French agents. He insisted on the entire Code 
Napoleon being adopted in the kingdom. The Neapolitans 
objected strongly to the introduction of the divorce law, 
which formed a part of it. Murat and his ministers voiced 
these objections. Napoleon would not listen to them. 
' It is part of the foundation of the Code,' he said, ' and 
you must not touch it in any way ; it is the law of the State. 
Rather than have the Code Napoleon thus mutilated I would 
prefer to see Naples under the old King of Sicily.' 

He insisted that the goods of the Sicilian emigres must not 
be restored. If they were he would seize them himself. 
He pressed for the payment of arrears due to the French 
garrisons. He forbade any Frenchman to enter Murat's 
service without his express license. He sent French police 
agents to Naples to watch the proceedings of the king and 
court. The wonder is not that Murat was eventually 
alienated from his overbearing brother-in-law, but that the 
rupture did not come sooner. 

What was the reason of this harsh and impolitic treatment 
of Murat by Napoleon ? Possibly it was partly due to the 
growing irritation of the Emperor at discovering that he 
could no longer act as if his decisions were the decrees of an 
irresistible destiny. Spain was becoming an open wound 



206 JOACHIM MURAT 

in the body of the Empire that was eventually to drain away 
its strength. And bad news meant fits of ill-humour. 
There may be something, too, in M. Frederic Masson's 
suggestion that the Cabinet Noir, which opened and reported 
on all letters of important personages as they passed through 
the post office, had revealed to the Emperor the fact that 
more than one prominent politician regarded Murat as a 
candidate who might be put forward for the Imperial 
succession, in preference to any of the Bonaparte brothers, 
in case the Emperor died without an heir. Murat had no 
direct part in these intrigues, but he had some knowledge 
of them, and their very existence might well make the 
Emperor angrily jealous of this possible Pretender. 

There was yet another disturbing influence. Napoleon 
had not only a great affection for his sister Caroline, but also 
a high opinion of her intelligence and initiative, and when he 
offered Murat the crown of Naples he had told him that 
in his wife he had a woman who could act as the chief of a 
Council of Regency in his absence. Instead of being 
flattered at the praise of his wife's political capacity, Murat 
became nervously anxious to prevent any one supposing 
that she shared the active work of government with him, 
or inspired or directed his policy. He was essentially a 
proud man, with a pride that often took the form of almost 
puerile vanity, and he was determined that the Emperor's 
sister should be only the queen consort. No one was to 
imagine that she was the ruler of Naples in right of her 
name, and that he had been promoted to be a prince consort 
because he had the luck to marry into the Emperor's family. 
Caroline was allowed to figure in the pageantry of State 
ceremonial, and to take her place as the hostess of his 
palaces, but she had not the slightest voice in State affairs 
and was forced to pass long hours with her ladies amusing 
herself as best she could with music, fancy work, and novels. 
Rumour said she found other amusements, and the scandal 
of Naples coupled her name with those of more than one of 
her husband's officers. Murat was deaf to any such reports 
and content to have her keep her place in the background 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 207 

of political life. In this period of growing tension between 
him and the Emperor, CaroUne unconsciously became the 
centre of a French party surrounding the Imperial ambassa- 
dor, and her correspondence revealed to Napoleon a diverg- 
ence of views between the king and queen, in which the 
latter was on his side, while the French ambassador's reports 
more than hinted that Caroline was being neglected. This 
helped to increase Napoleon's feeling of disappointment 
with his vassal King of Naples. 

In the spring of 1809 the tension was somewhat relieved 
by the prospect of war with Austria giving the Emperor 
something else to think of. For Murat, too, the rumour of 
war was enough to turn all his thoughts in a new direction. 
The French ambassador at Naples reported that the king 
had spoken to him of his anxiety to clear himself of ' any 
suspicion that might have arisen against him in the mind of 
his Majesty.' He had expressed his desire to take the field 
again beside the Emperor, or, if this could not be, to attempt 
the conquest of Sicily during the v/ar. He had spoken of 
his absolute devotion, his entire submission to Napoleon, 
his readiness even to resign his crown if the annexation of 
Naples to the Empire would advance Napoleon's projects. 
The ambassador added that the king seemed hurt in his 
feeUngs, but he would be at once calmed and consoled by 
a friendly letter from Napoleon. 

With a large part of his army locked up in the Peninsula, 
and Austria preparing to act in three different theatres of 
war, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, north Italy, and the 
upper Danube valley. Napoleon needed the support of all 
his friends and could not afford to alienate any of them. 
He did not recall Murat to his old post at the head of the 
cavalry of the Grand Army, but he assigned to him a modest 
part in the defence of Italy, He was to occupy Rome with 
his army and set free the French army of occupation under 
General MioUis, which was to march to join the Viceroy 
Eugene in the north. It was a disappointingly small 
mission for Murat, but it led him to expect that part of 
central Italy might be added to his dominions, and rumours 



2o8 JOACHIM MURAT 

of an Anglo-Sicilian invasion of his kingdom afforded 
another reason for his remaining at Naples. 

In April the French armies had won their first victories. 
By the end of the month the Archduke John in Venetia and 
the Archduke Charles on the Danube were both in full 
retreat ; on lo May Napoleon was in Vienna. Thence he 
wrote to Murat the friendliest of letters. He spoke of the 
good work done by the cavalry of the Grand Army, and 
said they regretted the absence of their famous leader. But 
he could not call him to the Danube. He could serve him 
better in Italy. An English descent was now, he thought, 
imlikely. Murat was to send all available troops to Rome, 
and go there himself to complete the annexation of the 
Papal States. 

He had sent a division to Rome, and was preparing to 
follow it at the head of another, when, in the last week of 
May, he was kept at Naples by the appearance of the 
Anglo-SiciUan expedition of which his brother-in-law had 
written so carelessly. A force of Sicilian troops was thrown 
into Calabria to organize an insurrection. General Partoun- 
neaux, who commanded there, blew up the fort of Scilla, 
and retreated northwards before the invaders. An English 
squadron, escorting a convoy of transports from Palermo, 
appeared off Naples, and the Sicilians seized the islands of 
Ischia and Procida. Murat concentrated some thousands 
of civic guards to reinforce what was left of his army in and 
near the capital, and prepared the forts for defence. His 
warlike energy called forth an outburst of enthusiastic 
loyalty to himself and ardent hostility to the Bourbon king. 
The defence of Naples became a national movement in 
which all classes united. But no attack was made on the 
city. At Palermo it had been anticipated that the mere 
appearance of the fleet in the Bay of Naples would produce 
an insurrection against the French king. But it had just 
the opposite effect, and the enthusiasm of the Neapolitans 
rose to fever point when Murat's solitary frigate, the Cerere, 
and some of the gunboats went out to exchange a distant 
fire with the enemy's ships that had stood in to reconnoitre. 




^"^'3 



MARIE CAROLINE, QUEEN OF NAPLES 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY MARIE ANNE BOURLIER 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 209 

The desultory fight took place in sight of the city, and 
while the cannonade echoed along the water CaroHne drove 
out in an open carriage and was saluted by cheering crowds 
on the Chiaja. The legend arose that as the queen drove 
along the sea-front promenade she was actually under 
hostile fire. The return of the Cerere uninjured was treated 
as a naval victory. 

The whole of the Anglo-Sicilian expedition was mis- 
managed. When it was found that a mere demonstration 
against Naples produced no result the fleet withdrew, after 
re-embarking the Sicilians who had landed on the islands. 
Partounneaux was reinforced and drove the Calabrian 
force back to the Straits, the Sicilians abandoning artillery 
and baggage in their hurried retreat. The insurgents who 
had joined them broke up into scattered bands that carried 
on a brigand warfare for more than a year after in Calabria, 
Basilicata, and the adjacent districts. The French general, 
Manhes, was at last put in command of the south and given 
full powers to deal with the brigandage under martial law. 
He organized flying columns to hunt down the bands, and 
mastered the terrorism of the brigands by a more merciless 
system than their own. In a few months gibbets along the 
highways and at the crossroads, from which dangled the 
decaying corpses of captured bandits, were the monuments 
of his success and a grim warning that with Manhes in 
command brigandage was a losing game. 

The decisive victory of Wagram had enabled Napoleon 
once more to dictate the terms of peace to Austria. After 
Aspem and Essling, when fortune seemed for a while to be 
doubtful, he had for a moment thought of calling Murat 
to his side, but the King of Naples saw nothing of the war. 
His troops took an inglorious part in the final spoliation of 
Pius VII. In his letters to Napoleon he expressed his 
thorough approval of the Emperor's Roman policy. 

On his return to Paris after his victories Napoleon was 
busy with his plans for the divorce of Josephine, and a 
second marriage with a daughter of one of the historic 
reigning houses of Europe. In the autumn he invited the 



210 JOACHIM MURAT 

members of his family to meet in Paris to discuss the new t 
situation. Murat arrived in the capital on 30 November 
(1809), and Caroline four days later. 

On 28 January, 1810 the Emperor convoked at the 
Tuileries a family council of the great dignitaries of the 
Empire to discuss the question of the second marriage. 
Three ladies had been named as possible candidates for the 
vacant place, a Russian grand duchess, a Saxon princess, 
and the Archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor 
of Austria. Napoleon had not absolutely decided the 
question, but the whole bent of his mind was towards the 
Austrian alliance. Murat found himself at the council in 
a minority, when he opposed the idea and urged that a 
Russian marriage would be more politic. There was 
danger, he said, that a marriage with an Austrian arch- 
duchess would revive the memories of the ' Austrian 
woman,' the queen of Louis XVL It would alienate the men 
of the new time without concihating the adherents of the old 
regime. He had a personal reason for this opposition, 
though he only made distant allusions to it. King Ferdinand 
of the Two Sicilies, now reigning at Palermo under British 
protection, had for his queen consort the Austrian, Maria 
Carolina, sister of Marie Antoinette. Murat saw in the 
proposed Austrian marriage of Napoleon a danger to his 
own position at Naples, and a probability that there would 
be no longer any prospect of adding Sicily to his dominions. 

But his arguments counted for little. Russia was not 
anxious to send a grand duchess to the Tuileries. The 
Saxon alliance would have seemed a small affair after the 
talk of Imperial princesses accepting the upstart Emperor's 
hand, so the choice fell on Maria Louisa of Austria. Not- 
withstanding Murat's opposition to the marriage, Napoleon 
gave to his wife Caroline the office of arranging all the 
details for the reception of the archduchess, and it was the 
French Queen of Naples who met her on her way and 
welcomed her to France. 

In the new arrangements made on the occasion of the 
marriage, and in view of its giving a direct heir to Napoleon, 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 211 

the ' Kingdom of Italy/ that is to say the northern provinces, 
had been incorporated with the Empire by annexation, and 
the Roman States were treated in the same way. Rome 
was to be the second city of the Empire. The emperors 
were to be crowned there within ten years of their accession, 
and the heir of the Empire was to be known as the ' King of 
Rome.' 

These arrangements might have made Murat anxious as 
to the future of his kingdom had not Napoleon shown a 
disposition to reassure him by unexpected concessions. 
After the family council at the Tuileries in November 
Murat had paid a flying visit to Naples. He had obtained 
a considerable reduction in the claims of the Imperial 
treasury on his exchequer, and Napoleon had consented to 
his organizing a Franco-Neapolitan expedition for the 
conquest of Sicily. He left Paris on 31 January, 1810 and 
arrived at Naples on 14 February. He stayed there a 
week, and on the 21st went to review a division of his 
troops at Capua. He had stiffened his Neapolitan regiments 
by incorporating in them numbers of French deserters, 
to whom he gave special inducements in gratuities and 
the prospect of speedy promotion. On 10 March he started 
on his return to France in order to be present at the marriage 
fetes on the 20th. 

Duringthe stay of the Imperial court at Compiegne after the 
marriage there was a dangerous moment when Napoleon and 
Murat were on the verge of a serious quarrel. The Emperor 
had objected to his soldiers being surreptitiously turned 
into recruits for Murat's regiments. He insisted on all 
deserters being sent back to their depots. If this were 
refused he said he would send one of his own generals to 
take command in southern Italy. Then Murat must pay 
for all the French regiments in his kingdom. If they were 
not paid for it must be because they were not wanted. In 
that case they would be recalled. But the Emperor told 
him he could not afford to do without them. How could 
he make the proposed expedition to Sicily with only his 
Neapolitans ? Murat had to yield on every point. 



212 JOACHIM MURAT 

He quitted Compiegne on lo April to return to Naples, 
leaving Caroline in France. She was to use her influence 
with the Emperor in his favour. It was through her that 
he asked for and obtained the transfer to his army of a 
battalion of Corsicans and a regiment of Swiss. ' I will give 
the king as many officers and non-commissioned officers as 
he wants,' WTote Napoleon to Caroline, ' but I don't w^ant 
him to take them without my leave, and to disorganize 
my regiments, wiiile denying that he does so. One must act 
in good faith and go straight. I cannot tolerate anything 
clone to injure the service of my army.' But at the same time 
he warned Murat that French troops must not be put 
under the command of men who had passed into the Nea- 
pohtan army, and there obtained rapid promotion without 
any service in the field, so that they would now claim 
higher rank that his war-worn veterans. Another step 
that w^as not flattering to Murat was the withdrawal of the 
French ambassador. He had not been treated with proper 
respect, said Napoleon, and a mere charge d'affaires would 
do the work in future, and, after all, Naples w'as not a 
foreign country. 

On his journe}^ through Italy Murat heard rumours that 
Queen Maria Carolina at Palermo was in communication 
with Napoleon through the new Empress, Maria Louisa, 
and anxious to arrange with him to break off the English 
alliance. In a letter from Alessandria on 22 April, e\i- 
dently written to sound the Emperor's views on the subject, 
Murat said : ' New^s from Palermo tells of serious misunder- 
standings between the court and the English, w^ho, since the 
marriage of your Majesty and the preparations directed 
against Sicily, believe that Maria Carolina has an under- 
standing with your Majesty with a \iew^ to expelling them 
from Sicily and keeping it for herself. These reports are 
quite positive on the point.' 

The Emperor took no notice of the letter. Murat reached 
Naples on the 27th, and with some anxiety as to Napoleon's 
real attitude, pushed on the preparations for the invasion 
of Sicily. The first step would be to ferry the expedition 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 213 

across the Straits of Messina, and within the first week of 
his stay in his capital he had an unwelcome reminder that 
the British were still masters of the sea. On 4 May a war- 
ship flying English colours appeared in sight of Naples. 
She was the Spartiate of fifty guns. Murat had last seen 
her twelve years before when she flew the tricolour as a 
unit in the fleet that escorted the ' Army of the East ' to 
Egypt. She was taken by Nelson at the Nile, and had since 
shared the glories of Trafalgar. Seeing her hove to in 
the bay just beyond gunshot of his batteries, he sent out 
his one frigate, the Cerere, a brig and seven gunboats to 
attack her. From the shore he watched the fight. It did 
not last long. The brig was sunk, and presently the frigate 
and the gunboats ran back under the shelter of the batteries 
with their rigging badly cut up and their hulls damaged. 
They landed fifty dead for burial, and sent no wounded 
officers and men into the hospitals. The Spartiate, after a 
leisurely reconnaissance of the shore defences, sailed away 
to the south-westward. 

Though the incident suggested difficulties in the Straits, 
Murat left Naples on the i6th to establish his headquarters 
at Piale near Reggio, in Calabria. He made a leisurely 
journey south, receiving a public welcome in every town 
and city he passed through, and escorted by four battalions 
of his guard, which were to form the nucleus of a reserve 
division for the expedition. Three other divisions were already 
concentrated within reach of the Straits. These were : — 
ist Division. — General Partounneaux, 8,500 men (French) 
2nd Division. — General Lamarque, . 10,000 ,, „ 

3rd Division. — General Cavaignac, . 3,500 ,, (Neapohtans 

and Corsicans) 

22,000 men. 

The reserve brought the total up to about 27,000, more 
than two-thirds of them French troops. On 6 June Murat 
arrived at Piale, took command, and wrote to Napoleon : — 
* Sicily will be conquered and the English beaten, or you 
will have lost your best friend.' 



214 JOACHIM MURAT 

Meanwhile, the EngUsh were quite on the alert. Two of 
their ships of the line, four frigates, and a number of smaller 
craft were cruising about the Straits and along the Italian 
coast, and every day they attacked and destroyed or took 
some of the crowd of fishing-boats and coasting craft that 
were creeping along near the shore to join the flotilla of 
transports at Reggio. While Murat looked forward with 
light-hearted confidence to the enterprise, the Emperor 
fully realized the danger of an attempt to cross the Straits 
while the enemy held the sea. Even if the expedition 
reached Sicily there was the prospect of its being cut off 
from its base by a British squadron holding the Straits, and 
then a marshal of France, his own brother-in-law, might be 
forced to surrender with 25,000 men, a worse disaster than 
Dupont's capitulation at Baylen. It might mean the loss 
of Naples and Italy. What he wanted was a demonstra- 
tion that would divert to Sicily British reinforcements 
that might otherwise be sent to Wellington in the Peninsula. 
Murat's preparations about Reggio were therefore useful 
to him, but he hesitated to permit him to run any risks. 
At the end of May he sent Colonel Leclerc of the War Office 
staff to Calabria to report on the situation, and to warn 
Murat that he must not leave the mainland unless he was 
certain of being able to ferry across 15,000 men at the first 
attempt. He was also directed to have Gaeta prepared 
for a siege so as to be ready for all eventualities. 

Leclerc's arrival as an inspecting officer made Murat very 
angry. It was an unpleasant reminder of his subordinate 
position. He wrote to the Emperor that if no risks were to 
be taken, of course the expedition must be abandoned. 
Then he complained of being calumniated and thwarted in 
his projects by enemies in Paris. But next day he changed 
his tone and wrote hopefully. The expedition must succeed ; 
there was already a panic at Palermo ; he needed no covering 
fleet, he would cross in the night and the fate of Sicily might 
easily be decided in fort3^-eight hours. 

In the army, among the French officers of higher rank, 
the rumour had spread that the proposed expedition was 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 215 

only a feint, a mere sham. Murat had a bad quarter of an 
hour with General Lamarque, when the latter, on being 
reproached with slackness in preparing for his part in the 
coming conquest of Sicily, replied : — ' Sire, I don't believe 
in your gasconades.' Then the chief of the police, Maghella, 
who had succeeded Salicetti, sent Murat a letter that one of 
his Corsican agents at Palermo had received from Queen 
Maria Carolina. It showed that the Bourbon queen was 
really in correspondence with the Empress. She had been 
lured into using Maghella's agent as her courier. Murat 
resolved to bring matters to a crisis and used his wife's 
influence with her brother to obtain from the Emperor 
permission to make the attempt. On 3 August he issued 
orders for the crossing of the Straits. 

But it had to be again deferred, for the English squadron 
was unpleasantly vigilant. The Emperor's f^te day, 15 
August, was then chosen for the enterprise, but the English 
ships watched the royal camp at Piale all day, and in the 
evening, when there was a banquet and a display of fire- 
works, the hostile cruisers made the camp the target of some 
long ranging shots. Again and again the attempt was put 
off. By the middle of September all local supplies had been 
eaten up, and bad weather was threatening. Murat was, 
afraid that he would have to break up his camp and disperse 
his flotilla. On the morning of 17 September he ordered 
that the attempt to cross should be made in the following 
night. 

It ended in failure. The plan was that the Neapolitan 
division under Cavaignac should cross first from the little 
port of Pentimele, and march on Messina to divert the 
enemy's attention from the crossing of the main expedition 
under Murat himself — Partounneaux and Lamarque's French 
divisions embarked at and near Reggio. At midnight the 
troops were crowded on board the flotillas. But the 
English ships appeared, dimly seen in the strait between 
Reggio and Messina, and Murat waited hour after hour for 
Cavaignac's demonstration to draw them off. The Nea- 
politan division, some 3000 men, got across and actually 



2i6 JOACHIM MURAT 

landed. The Corsican regiment struck into the hills on 
the flank of the Messina road. Cavaignac, ^\ith the rest, 
halted on the road near the shore waiting for some sign that 
Murat was coming over to support him. At da\Mi he 
learned that the main body had never left the Calabrian 
shore, and found that the Anglo-Sicilians were advancing 
on him in superior force. Presently the English squadron 
would cut off his retreat. He hurriedly re-embarked and 
regained Pentimele, without being able to rally the Corsican 
battalion to his flag. Surroimded in the hills, the missing 
battalion surrendered the same da3^ Eight hundred 
officere and men were marched as prisonei^s into Messina, 
and the standard given by Murat to the regiment was himg 
up as a troph}' in the cathedral. 

On the i8th Murat wrote to the Emperor that although 
some men had been lost he had proved that the Straits could 
be crossed whenever the Emperor decided to renew the 
attempt. He promised a fuller report. The same day 
he endeavoured to disguise his failure by a general order to 
the army annoimcing that the expedition was deferred 
till next year, and that meanwhile the army and flotilla 
would disperse. The Emperor's present object, he said, 
had been attained, for it had been proved that, in spite of 
the enemy's fleet, troops could be sent into Sicily in an 
impro\'ised flotilla of fishing-boats. 

Napoleon was angry at tlie failure imd still more at the 
lame explanations put forward by his brother-in-law. 
' The King of Naples,' he wrote, ' has no right to talk 
thus about my plans without any authorization from me. 
My object was to make an expedition against Sicily. 
Sicily not ha\dng been conquered my object has not been 
attained. I consider it most extraordinary that he speaks 
of me in this incorrect way. It may have the disadvantage 
of leading men to suppose that I do not always mean to 
succeed.' He ordered the troops to remain in position 
about Reggio till the end of the j^ear so as still to menace 
Sicily and divert English reinforcements thither. Murat 
marched them awa}^ and told the Emperor that fii-st, he 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 217 

could not find supplies for them if they remained concen- 
trated, and secondly, that his object had been attained as 
the English were still sending reinforcements. Napoleon 
replied that on the contrary all the troops intended for 
Sicily had been stopped and landed in Portugal as soon as 
the king's proclamation of 18 September was known. ' If 
yon wanted to go back to Naples,' he said, ' what need was 
there of declaring the expedition at an end ? But you act 
without any kind of prudence.' 

Thus the abortive enterprise had widened the breach 
between Napoleon and Murat. When he returned to Naples 
on 3 October he found Caroline awaiting him ther^. She 
had left Paris in the beginning of August. Possibly if 
she had remained in France she might have used her influ- 
ence with Napoleon, whose favourite sister she was, to 
plead her husband's cause and prevent his relations with him 
being further embittered. For months to come things 
went from bad to worse. The flight of Louis Bonaparte 
from Holland, the occupation of that kingdom by French 
troops, and its annexation to the Empire, made Murat feel 
that his turn might come next. The Emperor seemed 
thoroughly hostile. His letters were full of censorious 
criticism of everything done at Naples, and Murat, though 
at times he sought for some way of regaining Napoleon's 
good graces, began to think more and more of organizing 
the means of asserting his independence. The Emperor 
complained of the bad quality and alleged misconduct of 
the Neapolitan corps in Spain. Murat asked him to send 
them back to Naples, and replace them by taking away 
some of the French troops he found it so difficult to pay for. 
The Emperor told him he could not withdraw the French 
army of occupation. If they went, he said contemptu- 
ously, Naples would be at the mercy of 12,000 Enghsh 
from Sicily. Even 40,000 Neapolitans could not stop them. 
Then there were angry complaints that British goods were 
being covertly imported into Naples. This was true, 
though Murat denied it. American ships brought regularly 
cargoes from the West Indies to his ports and this was how 



2i8 JOACHIM MURAT 

he was able to place a United States merchantman at the 
disposal of Liicien Bonaparte for his flight from Civita 
Vecchia. 

On 20 March, 1811 the long-hoped-for heir to the Empire, 
the ' King of Rome,' was bom. Murat had at once asked 
permission to come to Paris to take part in the rejoicings 
that saluted the great event. He left Naples on 26 March 
and arrived at Paris on 3 April. He had not waited for the 
Emperor's permission to come, and he found Napoleon in 
a bad humour. The first interviews were not pleasant to 
either of them. But Murat's protestations of devotion to 
his old leader, and his obviously sincere eagerness to serve 
him again in the field when Napoleon spoke to him of a 
possible war with Russia, helped to produce a temporary 
reconciliation. It was agreed that in case of war Murat 
should supply a contingent of 30,000 Neapolitans to the 
Grand Array and himself command its cavalry. On 26 
May he left Paris to return to Naples, where he arrived on 
the 30th. 

But again the relations with the Emperor were strained 
to a dangerous point. There were rumours that Murat 
was to be deposed like Louis of Holland — rumours too of 
strange conversations he had held with prominent men in 
which he spoke of taking a line of his own and sho\\dng that 
he was his own master. 

The Emperor had opposed his desire to have embassies 
at Vienna and St. Petersburg. The French Foreign Office 
and its envoys were to attend the foreign relations of the 
vassal State. Murat was thus forced to enter into private 
and unavowed correspondence with the Czar and the 
Austrian Emperor when the time came for endeavouring 
to secure the permanence of his rule. He published an 
ill-advised order that all Frenchmen in his service should 
take out papers of naturalization as Neapolitan citizens. 
The Emperor replied by a decree to the effect that as Naples 
was part of the Empire all Frenchmen had already full 
rights of citizenship in the kingdom of Joachim Napoleon. 
Then the French troops in south Italy were withdrawn 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES 219 

from Murat's command and formed into an army of observa- 
tion under General Grenier, who was to report directly to 
the Paris War Office, 

This made the quarrel public, and numbers of French 
officers, fearing to be compromised with Napoleon by 
continuing in the Neapolitan service, asked and obtained 
leave to quit Murat's army. From this point his policy 
became more and more Italianist in its tendency. There 
is not the least reason to suppose that the Gascon King of 
Naples had any real sympathy with the aspirations of the 
Italian Liberals, who dreamed of a united and free Italy. 
But he chafed at his vassaldom ; like many more he believed 
that there were difficult times in store for the Empire, and 
he looked forward to a crisis when he might exact as the 
price of his support for Napoleon the recognition of his claim 
to be the head of the new Italy, provided he could put that 
claim forward with a strong Neapolitan army at his back 
and the rest of Italy ready to rally to his standard. His 
aim was to cease to be a vassal and become an ally — an 
ally of the Emperor, for whom he still had an intense 
admiration, and some of the devoted loyalty of earlier 
years. He was not yet thinking of offering his alliance to 
the best paymaster. 

Henceforth he steadily increased the numbers of his 
army, which he flattered himself that he would be able 
to make the nucleus of a future national army of Italy. 
At the same time he sought to estabhsh friendly relations 
with the various secret organizations that were then seek- 
ing to leaven the people with the new ideas of Liberalism 
and national unity. In the year of Wagram he had been 
elected Grand Master of the Masonic organization in the 
kingdom of Naples, but the order was French, the lodges 
being estabhshed by the officers of the army of occupation 
in the various garrison centres. Through his minister 
of police, Maghella, who had ambitious ideas of the part 
he himself might play in a future Italy, Murat was able 
to communicate with what might prove a more, useful 
organization, the vente of the Carbonari. He was becom- 



220 JOACHIM MURAT 

ing popular with the Neapohtans and Agar's administra- 
tion was doing real service in promoting the prosperity 
of the people. He might hope some day, in a great crisis 
in Italy, to pose as a patriot king. 

In September Caroline went to Paris to use her influ- 
ence with the Emperor in order to promote better relations 
between him and her husband, and she s|:ayed there most 
of the winter. Murat wrote to Napoleon protesting 
that he was still the soldier of Wertingen and Eylau, still 
devoted to him, but he asked him to make his position 
at Naples more endurable. It was the grov^dng shadow 
of the coming war with Russia that partly relieved the 
tension. At the beginning of 1812 Napoleon asked for 
a first contingent of 10,000 men to be sent into Germany. 
Murat raised difficulties : he needed the men for the defence 
of his kingdom, he could ill afford to pay for the French 
troops which he did not even command. The Emperor 
had better take away these. An acrimonious contro- 
versy followed. Murat fell ill, and refused to see any 
one or attend to business. Some said it was a diplomatic 
illness, others more probably saw in it the result of a 
nervous breakdown induced by worry and disappoint- 
ment, hke his former attack at Madrid. When he re- 
covered Napoleon would not answer his letters. In April 
Caroline wrote to him that matters were so serious that 
he had better come to Paris and plead his cause in person 
with the Emperor. 

He prepared to go, announced his departure, and then 
suddenly put it off on the pretext that the English were 
threatening Calabria from Sicily and he must go there. 
But he remained in Naples. The real reason was that 
friends had warned him that if he left Naples he might 
be deposed by a French coup d'etat in his absence. Then 
further letters from Paris telling him that his change of 
plans had made a bad impression gave him a new alarm. 
On 26 April he saw the Baron de Durant, the French 
envoy, and told him that he was being calumniated by 
men in the Emperor's circle who said that he would not 



JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NALPES 221 

go to Paris because he was busy organizing a party in 
Italy, He was ready to go at once and discuss his posi- 
tion frankly with Napoleon. Durant wrote that he thought 
Murat was sincere, because he stated his position frankly. 
' He declared that as a Frenchman and a soldier he con- 
sidered himself the Emperor's subject, but as King of 
Naples he claimed complete independence.' 

Perhaps this was the phrase that suggested to Napoleon 
the easiest solution for the crisis. War with Russia was 
now actually in sight. The Emperor was giving his final 
orders for the concentration of the Grand Army in Poland 
and eastern Germany. Once he was ready to employ 
Murat as ' a soldier and a Frenchman,' the King of Naples 
would become once more the bold leader of his cavalry. 
In May he wrote to him to come to Paris, but when Murat 
arrived there he found the Emperor had started for 
eastern Germany, where he was directed to rejoin him 
and take command of the largest body of horsemen that 
had been arrayed under a European banner since the 
days of chivalry. The march to Moscow was about to 
begin. 



222 JOACHIM MURAT 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 
l8l2 

THE army of many nations that Napoleon concen- 
trated on the Russian frontier, in the early 
summer of 1812, numbered nearly half a million 
fighting men. No such force had been till then assembled 
under a European standard. The cavalry placed under 
Murat's command formed an army of horsemen exceed- 
ing in numbers by many thousands the armies with which 
Napoleon had conquered in the battles of 1796 and on 
the decisive day of Marengo. 

There were in all 36,000 mounted men, with 132 horse 
artillery guns. They were organized in four corps, 
commanded by Generals Nansouty, Montbrun, Grouchy, 
and Latour-Maubourg. The heavy cuirassier regiments 
formed a strong element in three of these corps, the ist 
2nd, and 4th being each made up of a di\dsion of Ught 
cavalry and two divisions of cuirassiers. The 3rd corps 
(Grouchy) was composed of a division of light cavalry, 
a division of dragoons, and a division of Polish lancers. 

Belliard again acted as Murat's chief of the staff. But 
it was now a king that commanded the cavalry of the 
Grand Army, and he went to war in kingly fashion. Besides 
the mihtary staff a royal household accompanied him. 
There were equerries, chamberlains, secretaries, pages, 
and a crowd of servants, footmen and grooms, and a staff 
of cooks commanded by a famous Paris chef, specially 
engaged for the campaign. Three tables were to be ready 
each day, the king's table, a second table for the ofi&cers 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 223 

of rank and the higher officials, a third for the minor digni- 
taries of staff and household. The royal baggage train was 
a long array of wagons destined to supply abundant booty 
to the Cossacks when the days of disaster came. It crossed 
the frontier laden with tents and furniture, plate and 
china, an elaborate haiterie de cuisine, a store of choice 
wines. The chief valet of his Majesty of Naples was in 
charge of a whole wagon load of uniforms and court costumes, 
with a supply of scent and pommades for the toilet, for 
Murat had a strong dash of ' dandyism ' in his character. 
He had invented a new battle uniform even more elaborate 
than the costume in which he had led the charges at Eylau. 
It was made up of long boots of bright yellow leather, 
crimson riding-breeches embroidered with gold ; a sky-blue 
tunic covered with gold lace, over which hung loosely a 
pelisse of scarlet velvet, with gold embroidery and fur 
linings. The diamond-hilted sword that he seldom drew, 
even at the head of a charge, hxmg in an embroidered cross- 
belt, and his long curled hair fell on his shoulders from 
under a three-cornered hat, heavily braided with gold, 
and decorated with white ostrich feathers and an aigrette 
fastened with a diamond buckle. His charger was as 
elaborately adorned as the rider — tiger-skin saddle-cloth, 
gold bit and stirrups, embroidered holsters from which 
projected the long butts of a pair of pistols bright with gold 
and gems. 

Sixty horses, selected for him by Belliard, were distri- 
buted among the various corps and divisions, under the 
care of a staff of grooms, so that wherever he went he could 
find plenty of fresh mounts. For the long marches when he 
was not in the saddle he had the choice of several carriages. 

AU this elaborate display, this far-sighted provision for 
making war in the midst of palatial ease, would have been 
ridiculous in another man, and would have set men thinking 
of ' carpet knights ' and feather-bed soldiers, but every 
one knew that the theatrically dressed cavalry commander 
was also a leader who was ready without a moment's hesita- 
tion to ride into the thick of the fiercest m^lee. He had the 



224 JOACHIM MURAT 

reputation not only of the reckless courage of action but 
also of the cool disregard of danger while waiting for his 
opportunity — inactive under a deadly fire. It was told 
how more than once, when an aide-de-camp brought him 
a message and waited near him, he would turn to the 
officer and say — ' You had better ride off, sir, or I shall 
be getting you killed.' He could leave all the comforts 
of his palace of tents and his well-served table to sleep by 
a watch-fire on the steppe after a supper of dry biscuit. 
The soldier, who had first learned his business as a trooper 
in the Chasseurs de Champagne, lived on in the King of 
Naples. 

He left Paris on 12 May, after signing a decree appointing 
Caroline regent of his kingdom, and, travelling by way of 
Cassel, Berlin and Posen, joined the Emperor at Dantzic. 
There he succeeded in obtaining from him two concessions 
he had long been asking for, the return to Naples of the 
Neapolitan troops employed in Spain, and the withdrawal 
from his dominions of Grenier's French ' Army of observa- 
tion.' This would seem to show that Murat and Napoleon 
were again on good terms, and throws considerable doubtj 
on the stories of violent scenes between them during theii 
stay at Dantzic. 

By the middle of June the corps forming the left of the 
Grand Army were concentrated on the Niemen, and, in the 
night of the 23rd to the 24th, the crossing of the frontier^ 
river began at Kovno. Murat pushed on in advance with the 
cavalry corps of Nansouty and Montbrun, driving before 
him the swarms of Cossacks that screened the retirement 
of the Russian army. 

Napoleon hoped to bring the enemy to action near Wilna, 
but they abandoned the town. Great magazines of supplies 
had been accumulated there for Barclay de Tolly's army. 
Eager to secure these before the Russians could remove 
or destroy them. Napoleon personally directed Montbrim 
with the 2nd cavalry corps to make a forced march, drive 
the enemy's rearguard out of Wilna, and seize the magazines. 
The regular course would have been to send the order to 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 225 

Murat, but the Emperor was in a hurry and disregarded 
regulation routine. 

Montbrun had paraded his men and was preparing to 
start, when Murat rode up and asked what he was doing. 
Montbrun explained that, by order of the Emperor, he was 
marching to seize Wilna. Murat angrily replied that the 
order ought to have come to him, in any case he would see 
to the work being done, and Montbrun was to dismiss his 
men to their lines. The general objected that he had re- 
ceived precise instructions in detail, and feared the anger 
of Napoleon if he neglected them. ' What is that to him 
provided the thing is done ? ' exclaimed Murat, and re- 
peated his orders for Montbrun's corps to remain in camp. 
Then he paraded Bruyere's light cavalry division, put 
himself at the head of it, and marched on Wilna. The 
delay in starting had not been great, but it was sufficient 
to give the last of the Russian rearguard time to slip away 
after firing the magazines. As Murat rode into Wilna the 
smoke and glare of a great conflagration told him he had 
come too late. 

The Emperor was furious when he heard of the failure to 
surprise the place. He rode up to Montbrun, who was at 
the head of his corps, reproached him with his disobedience 
to orders, and told him he thought of sending him away 
to the line of communications as a man who was good 
for nothing in the field. Montbrun tried to explain. ' Be 

silent, sir,' shouted the angry Emperor. ' But, sire ' 

began the general. ' Silence ! ' repeated Napoleon. This 
was hard treatment for the veteran' leader of cuirassiers, 
who had fought his way up from the ranks in the Republican 
army of the Rhine, and since then led many a charge in 
Germany, Italy, and Spain. Murat was riding with the 
Emperor. Montbrun looked at him with a silent appeal 
for him to speak. But the King of Naples had too much 
selfish vanity to intervene and take the blame on himself. 
Napoleon continued his scolding tirade, but Montbrun 
had now come to the end of his patience. Suddenly he 
drew his long cuirassier sword, reversed it, caught it by the 
p 



226 JOACHIM MURAT 

blade, whirled it on high, and, letting it go. sent it whistling 
through the air fift^^ feet away. Then putting spui^ to 
his hoi^e he ealled out, ' You may all go to the de\il ! ' imd 
rode oft to his tent. 

Napoleon was stnick dumb. Pale with rage he turned 
his hoi-se and rode away in silence, followed by his staff. 
Every one expected that Montbrun would be arrested and 
court-martiallod. But that same day he was told to resume 
the command of his corps, and nothing more was heard of 
the incident. It would seem that after the explosion had 
taken place. IXIurat. as he rode away with Napoleon, entered J 
into a frank explanation, and so saved IMontbrun by doing, * 
when almost too late, what ought to have been done at 
once. 

Napoleon established his hoadquartei-s at Wilna on 
20 June. Then came a foretaste of later troubles. Though 
it was the summer the weather became suddenly cold, and 
then for three days there was a wild storm with a ceaseless 
downpour of icy rain. Thousands of horses perished 
under the stress of bad weather and scanty food, for the 
roads had become muddy tracks, all transport was stopped, 
and the only forage available was the green and sodden rye 
in the fields. The cavalry lost fewer horses than the | 
artillery and transport train, but even before the weather 
had changed numbers of the caN'alry horses showed signs of 
breaking down. 

From Wilna onwards the daily loss in horses was heavy. 
]Murat has been blamed for this by historians of the Russian 
campaign. It has been said that though none could excel 
him as a leader on the battlefield, he did not know how 
to take care of his horses on the march or in camp, or was 
careless on this all-important matter. He could conduct a 
campaign, say his critics, on condition of being allowed 
to use up some hundreds of hoi^ses every da\'. ^^'ith scores 
of them at his own disposal, and a fresh one to momit every 
few hours, he did not realize that the heavily equipped 
cuirassier or dragoon had only one horse, and that horse 
could not work all day and all night without suffering for 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 227 

it. But the blame of overworking the \\<)rr,<:'^ cannot be 
ontirely laid at his door. On 28 June Napoleon had ordered 
that small patrols, even patrols of fifty men, should not 
be employed against the enemy, as such detachments 
were too easily cut off and overwhelmed by a rapid con- 
centration of the ever vigilant Cossacks against them. 
The cavalry should therefore work in bodies of a thousand 
or even fifteen hiandred men in the service of reconnaissance 
and screening. Even such masses of horsemen as Murat 
commanded could not furnish detachments of this strength 
for prolonged work day after day without serious losses.^ 

The enforced halt at Wilna came to an end when the cold 
and rain gave place to normal summer conditions. Then 
in hot, dry weather the march was resumed. Murat com- 
manded the advance guard — Nansouty and Montbrun's 
cavalry corps and the infantry divisions of Friant, Gudin, 
and Morand. Grouchy's cavalry corps was with Davout, 
and Latour-Maubourg's on the right with King Jerome. 
Barclay, with the main Russian army, held an entrenched 
position at the crossing of the Dwina near Drissa, and 
there was a hope that a decisive action might be fought 
there, but on the approach of Murat the enemy began to 
retire up the river towards Witebsk. There was some 
fighting between the French cavalry and the Russian 
rearguard and continual skirmishing with the Cossacks. 
Then, when Barclay reached Witebsk, there seemed again 
a prospect of forcing on a general engagement, for the 
Russian leader had halted in the hope that Bagration 
with the southern army would come up and join him. 

This halt led to two days' fighting, which began on the 
25 July, about Ostrowno. Murat's cavalry, first into action, 
bore the brunt of the fighting, and he himself led more 
than one charge. Once, to rescue a hard-pressed regiment, 
he dashed at the Russian horsemen with his staff and 

^ It must be a^imitted that in one respect Murat was a bad ' horse 
marster.' On days of battle he would keep thousands of men sitting 
inactive on their horses, sometimes for hours, waiting for the moment 
of action. One seldom hears of cavalry being dismounted to rest their 
horses while halted. But this was a fault he sharef^i with most cavalry 
leaders of the time. 



228 JOACHIM MURAT 

personal escort, some sixty sabres at most. It was one of 
the few occasions when he drew his diamond-hilted sword 
at the head of a charge. His hfe was saved by one of his 
equerries killing a Russian who was on the point of cutting 
him down. On the 27th he was in contact with the Russians 
before Witebsk. The enemy was formed up for battle. 
The columns of the Grand Army were rapidly closing on 
the vanguard. Murat wanted to attack at once, but 
Napoleon deferred the action till next day. In the night 
the enemy disappeared, abandoning Witebsk on the news 
that Bagration had been beaten and forced away to the 
eastward by Davout. 

Next day Witebsk was occupied and the cavalry pushed on 
in pursuit of the Russians. But the Cossack screen covered 
its Hne of retreat so well that the pursuit completely missed 
the track of the main body, and had an exhausting march 
over dry, sandy ground under a burning sun without ever 
sighting the Russian columns. Eager as he was, Murat 
now recognized that his men and horses must have a rest. 
Of the horses, one-third were completely broken down or 
temporarily disabled. The light cavalry, continually em- 
ployed in attempts to close with the evasive Cossacks, had 
lost one-half of its effective strength through sheer ex- 
haustion of its mounts. Belliard was sent to represent 
to the Emperor the necessity of a rest, and it was decided 
to halt for a few days at Witebsk. 

Barclay was retiring to Smolensk on the Dneiper, where 
Bagration was to join him. Napoleon had ordered Davout 
and all the troops on the right to converge on his own 
intended line of advance so that, when Smolensk was at- 
tacked, Murat would have all his four corps of cavalry in 
hand. 

In the first days of August the advance was resumed. 
At Inkowo, on the 8th, Murat, with Nansouty, Montbrun, 
and Grouchy's cavalry, fought a battle with Barclay's 
rearguard. It began by the Russians suddenly taking the 
offensive and surprising Sebantiani's light cavalry division. 
Murat, attacking in his turn with only some of his cavalry 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 229 

in hand, and without waiting for his guns and the infantry 
to come up, at first ran serious risks and suffered severe 
losses. He had another and still harder fight with the 
rearguard at Krasnoi on the 14th. The Russians finally 
drew off, leaving eight guns and a thousand prisoners in 
his hands. 

On 16 August Murat's cavalry, supported by Ney's 
infantry corps, were in sight of Smolensk. Grouchy, with 
his dragoons and horse artillery, drove the enemy's cavalry 
into the suburbs, but in the fight for the crossing of the 
Dnieper and the occupation of the city, the work fell chiefly 
on the infantry corps. The Russians held on just long 
enough to clear out some of their magazines and fire the 
rest. When Napoleon entered Smolensk on the morning 
of 19 August the city was wrapped in a fog of smoke from 
half a dozen huge conflagrations. Barclay and Bagration, 
covered by swarms of Cossack light horsemen, were retiring 
by the Moscow road. 

Murat was sent after them with Montbrun and Nan- 
souty's cavalry, supported by Davout with five divisions of 
infantry. Davout and Murat had never been friends, and 
old dissensions helped to accentuate the divergent views 
they took of the situation. Murat reported to the Emperor 
that the enemy were thoroughly demoralized and that a 
little pressure would turn their retreat into a rout. Davout 
sent back a more accurate judgment on the position. He 
wrote that the Russians showed no sign of disorganization 
or indiscipline, and were making their retreat in good order, 
with a probability that they would presently halt and 
offer battle. 

At Dorogbuz, some fifty miles east of Smolensk, they 
showed such a determined front that it looked as if they 
meant to make a stand in earnest. Napoleon hurried 
up with the Imperial Guard, but when he arrived the 
enemy were again retiring. The Emperor, who had thought 
at first of wintering at Smolensk, now found himself com- 
mitted to the pursuit. The whole of the Grand Army 
moved eastward in three huge columns. In advance of them 



230 JOACHIM MURAT 

Murat and Davoflt hung on the Russian roar, no hotter 
friends than hefore, for daily incidents showed the growing 
tension between them. Murat was all eagerness to fight. 
Davout, who did not share his anticipations of easy victory, 
was anxious not to be iuvolved suddenly in an action 
with superior niuubers, which uiight well be the result 
of gix'ing the enemy an opening for a counter-attack. Once 
there was an open quarrel. IMurat had tlung himself on 
the Russian rearguard with a siugle regiment of Polish 
lancers and had been roughly handled and rc^pulsed. 
He ordered one of Davout's batteries to come into action 
in support of the renewed attack. The battery commander 
replied that he could only take orders from the marshal 
to whose corps he belonged. Davout supported his sub- 
ordinate when Murat complained to the Emperor, and 
said the King of Naples was too ready to risk weak and 
unjustifiable attacks, Murat retorted that Davout was 
ready to leave him in the lurch. The Emperor begged 
them both to try to work together more amicably. 

For a fortnight the Russian army steadily retired, iind 
the Grand Army followed them up through a desolate 
countr}'' where the enemy had consumed or destrcn^ed nil 
supplies, and where the only thing the invadei's could 
take to help themselves was the abundance of wood for the 
bivouac fires supplied by the endless belts and patches 
of stunted forest. ' Each morning,' writes General Morimd, 
* we saw the Cossacks stretched out in an immense line 
across our front, while their nimble skirmisher patrols 
defied us b}' almost riding into our ranks. We would form 
up and march to attack the Cossack line, but as we neared 
it they would disappear in the distance, and the horizon 
would show us nothing but firs and birch trees. But an 
h(.uu- later, when we halted to feed our hoi"ses, they would 
come on again, and the long black line would develop and 
close in once more. These manannTes would go on all day, 
and the finest and bravest of caviUry was gradually ex- 
hausted and worn out.' 

At Gzazt, which the Emperor reached on 31 August, the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 231 

advance was stopped for three days by a break in the 
weather and a steady downpour of rain that turned the 
roads of the steppe into impassable sloughs. The horses 
of the cavalry, nrtillery and transport began to drop in 
scores. Berthier, Ney, and even the impetuous Murat 
proposed to Napoleon to abandon for that season the idea 
of reaching Moscow. But on 4 September, when the bad 
weather changed to bright sunshine, Napoleon ordered 
Murat and Davoiit to press on and gain touch of the enemy. 
That afternoon at Gridnewa, and next day at Koletkoi, 
Murat charged the Cossacks and broke through their 
moving screen of horsemen, but on each occasion they 
showed a disposition to fight that suggested a change of 
plans on the Russian side. On the afternoon of the 5th 
Murat was able to report that the Russian army was 
halted on the fortified position of Borodino, its right flank 
resting on the river Moskowa. The long-desired battle 
was at last to be fought. Prepared as they were to con- 
tinue the retreat, which was wearing out the strength of 
the invaders, the Russian leaders had had to yield to the 
clamour of those who were indignant at the thought of 
abandoning the holy city of Moscow without striking a 
blow in its defence. Barclay had insisted, nevertheless, 
that a continued retreat was the best policy, but Kutusoff, 
who had lost the battle of Austerlitz, had superseded him 
in the supreme command. 

On the 6th, while Murat cleared away the enemy's 
horsemen from the front of the position, and enabled 
Napoleon thoroughly to reconnoitre it, the Grand Army 
closed up and formed for the fight. On 7 September 
came the great struggle which the French call the battle 
of the Moskowa, the Russians Borodino. 

Both victors and vanquished rightly remember it with 
pride, for never was there a more recklessly brave and 
persevering attack, and more dogged and persistent de- 
fence. It was the last victory in Napoleon's unbroken 
career of conquest, a Pyrrhic victory that was the herald 
of disaster. Kutusoff had in line 121,000 men, 15,000 of 



232 JOACHIM MURAT 

them raw militia. Napoleon had 130,000. The Russian 
line bristled with 640 guns, many of them mounted in 
redoubts and earthwork batteries. Napoleon brought 
587 guns into action. Of his army not more than half were 
Frenchmen ; the rest were Germans, Italians, Switzers, 
Poles, Dutchmen — western Europe in arms against the 
Muscovite. But in his anxiety to keep something intact 
amid the fierce destruction of the fight some 20,000 of his 
splendid Guardsmen never fired a shot, an error he would 
not have made in the earlier days of his conquering career. 
The fight lasted fifteen hours, from early morning till dark- 
ness covered the slow retirement of the Russians, They 
left 37,500 killed and wounded on the field, and 5000 
prisoners in the hands of the French, a loss of more than a 
third of their fighting strength. But when they aban- 
doned the field they took with them some 7000 French 
prisoners, and the victory had cost Napoleon 24,000 killed 
and wounded. It was a costly success, and the Russians, 
though defeated, were not discouraged. It was still an 
army that tramped back to Moscow, ready and even eager 
to fight again. 

Of the tens of thousands who shared the dangers and 
glories of the day none had displayed more reckless courage 
and untiring energy than the soldier King of Naples. Under 
close fire, or in the thick of cavalry melees, his brilliant 
battle-costume made him a marked man, but he seemed 
invulnerable, escaping ball and bullet, bayonet and sword, 
as if by a miracle. In the first stage of the fight, while the 
artillery was preparing the way for the infantry attack on 
the redoubts, the cavalry w^as in the second line. Napoleon 
received a report that Davout was mortally wounded, 
and ordered Murat to take command of his infantry. Davout 
had been rolled over by a cannon-shot killing his horse, and 
had been so bruised and shaken that he became for a while 
a mere spectator of the battle on the French right. Murat 
galloped to the marshal's position just in time to see Razout's 
infantry division recoiling in disorder from the earthworks 
on the enemy's left. He rallied them by the mere magic 




^ s 

o S 
u 

M a 

O ? 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 233 

of his presence, and the sight of his imperturbable courage. 
Then dismounting, sword in hand, he placed himself at 
their head, ordered the charge to be sounded, and with 
the rush of bayonets behind him, dashed into the earthworks 
and cleared them, after a hand-to-hand fight, in which he 
took part like the youngest soldier. Mounting again he 
called up another division, sent for Nansouty's cuirassiers 
and horse artillery, and launched a fierce attack of horse, 
foot, and guns against the exposed flank of the Russian line. 
Then, as he gained ground, he flung Latour-Maubourg's 
cavalry on the enemy's flank and rear. The sight of long 
trains of transport retiring eastward made him think that 
the enemy was giving way everywhere. Ney, who was 
now supporting him, joined him in an earnest message, sent 
by General BeUiard to Napoleon asking him to intervene 
with the Imperial Guard. But the Emperor hesitated to 
employ his last reserve. 

Murat had, meanwhile, massed the rest of his cavalry on 
the right. Montbrun, riding up at the head of his cuirassiers, 
was mortally wounded by a cannon-shot, and Caulaincourt 
replaced him. Poniatowski appeared with a bristling 
forest of Polish lances. There was a succession of cavalry 
melees as the Russians threw all their mounted men into 
action to restore the fight. The Russian cuirassiers charged 
in vain on to the bayonets of Friant's infantry, only to be 
driven back with terrible loss. ' Soldiers of Friant, you 
are heroes ! ' shouted Murat, riding up to one of the squares 
as the broken cavalry retired. 

Then the battle raged round the great redoubt in the 
enemy's centre. Murat helped to decide the fight for its 
possession by sending Caulaincourt and Grouchy's cuirassiers 
to attack the rear of the defence. Grouchy was badly 
wounded, but several squadrons of his steel-clad horsemen 
penetrated into the redoubt by its open rear. On the 
right, when night fell, the Russians still held out with some 
three hundred guns in action. In the darkness they began 
their retreat towards Moscow. 

At dawn, on the 8th, Murat was again in the saddle, follow- 



234 JOACHIM MURAT 

ing up the retiring enemy with his sadly thinned squadrons. 
He would have pressed the pursuit hotly, for he believed 
that the Russians were badly beaten and demoralized, 
but he was restrained by the Emperor's orders. Napoleon 
had better judged the position of affairs, and knew there 
was still plenty of fight left in the enemy. He had, there- 
fore, ordered Murat to move slowly, so that the infantry 
could be at hand to support him at once if the Russians 
again turned and offered battle. At Mojaisk, on the 8th, 
there was a sharp fight with the enemy's rearguard, mostly 
composed of cavalry under Miloradovitch. Then, for a 
week, the two armies moved slowly eastwards. It was 
not till the afternoon of the 14th that Murat, riding up 
to the crest of a long swell of the steppe, saw the gilded 
and painted domes of Moscow and the turrets of the 
Kremlin, with the Russian cavalry — Cossacks and regulars 
— forming a strong screen in the plain between him and 
the city. 

It was here that a flag of truce arrived from Milorado- 
vitch with a proposal which Napoleon ordered Murat to 
accept. The Russians declared that they were anxious to 
avoid a fight in the streets of Moscow, and would therefore 
allow the French to occupy it without opposition, provided 
the Emperor would agree that his cavalry should, for the 
next two days, follow up the retreat of the Russian rear- 
guard without pressing it or attacking. That Napoleon 
accepted such a truce shows how thoroughly exhausted the 
Grand Army must have been, and how anxious he was to 
enter Moscow without another Borodino. 

Far from wishing to spare the city, the Russians had 
prepared its destruction. They were setting a trap for the 
invader and anxious for time to complete the evacuation 
of the place, remove the host of fugitives that was to ac- 
company their army, and put the last touches to their 
arrangements for the coming conflagration. On the 15th 
the Russian cavalry had retired to the east of the city, 
and Murat, with no suspicion of what was coming, rode 
proudl}'^ into Moscow. He made his entry at the head 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 235 

of a regiment of Polish hussars. Then came a battery of 
artillery, Caulaincourt's cuirassiers and light cavalry, and 
Dufour's division of infantry. 

Few witnessed the triumphal entry. The streets were 
empty, most of the houses deserted. Murat went out 
with a French escort to the east of the city and came upon 
a line of Cossack outposts. Taking advantage of the 
truce he rode up to them. The French and Russian officers 
talked together. The Cossacks gathered round Murat, 
who evoked their admiration by riding along their line at 
a headlong gallop, acknowledging their cheers with a wave 
of his hand. They told him they wished he could be their 
hetman. He showed a boyish pride in their applause, and 
gave his watch and some of the watches of his staff to 
those who were most prominent in their expressions of 
admiration. 

There is no need to tell again the story of the burning 
of Moscow. The cavalry camped outside the city were 
not disturbed by its destruction. They sent parties to 
help in fighting the fire, and others came in without orders 
to assist in the wholesale plundering that went on for 
days, and encumbered the baggage-trains of the army 
with miscellaneous booty, destined to become sooner or 
later the prey of the Cossacks. Murat himself was with 
Napoleon when the approach of the flames forced the 
Emperor to abandon the Kremlin. For some days Napoleon 
expected that his occupation of Moscow would enable him 
to impose his own terms on Russia, and he was misled in 
this direction by half-hearted overtures for peace. All 
touch with the Russian army had been lost for a while, 
and the reconnaissances of the cavalry, never pushed far 
enough, gave the impression that the enemy had drawn 
off to the south-eastward. Even the appearance of Cossack 
raiders to the south and southwest of the city conveyed 
no warning either to Murat or to Napoleon. It was sup- 
posed that these were wandering bands of plunderers with 
nothing behind them. There must have been something 
like a paralysis of energy and initiative in the French army 



236 JOACHIM MURAT 

or surely something serious would have been done to ' clear 
up the situation.' 

It was becoming very perilous. Kutusoff, after evacuating 
Moscow on 15 September, had marched eastwards for two 
days along the banks of the Moskowa river, then, finding 
that there was no pursuit, he had turned and, marching 
under cover of the screen of Cossacks that continually watched 
the enemy and effectually concealed his movement, he had 
worked round well to the south of Moscow. By the first of 
October he had massed his army about Tarutino, forty- 
five miles from the city and to the south-west of it, so that he 
threatened the French line of retreat. The presence of the 
Russian main army in this direction was not suspected, even 
when it was discovered that all the country south of the 
city was infested with strong bodies of Cossack cavalry. 

By the second week of October it was evident that the 
Russians had no intention of making peace, and the first 
falls of snow warned Napoleon that the retreat could no 
longer be delayed. To winter at Moscow, in the heart 
of a hostile country, would have meant starvation. The 
first movements of the retreat began on the 15th. 

Murat and Bessieres had already been sent out to the 
south of Moscow to keep the enemy's raiders in check, and 
clear the country. Murat had under his orders the cavalry 
of Nansouty, Sebastiani, and Latour-Maubourg, and Ponia- 
towski's Polish corps. There were daily skirmishes and 
the Russians everywhere gave way, but it was discovered 
that they had the support of formidable forces in their 
rear, which indicated the presence of Kutusoff's army. 
Murat had had to leave his chief of the staff ill at Moscow, 
and his letters to Belliard show that the columns in the 
field were short of supplies and suffering severe privations. 
In one letter to him Murat says that he is tired of running 
from bam to bam and is half dead mth hunger. In 
another he begs him to have a convoy of flour sent out as 
soon as possible, for his force has none left. At dawn, on 
18 October, he was surprised at Winkowo and narrowly 
escaped destruction. He was asleep when Plat off 's Cossacks 



THE CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA 237 

drove in his outposts. Half-dressed, he mounted and led 
more than one charge, but the most he could do was to 
drive the enemy from their position on his line of retreat, 
and withdraw, leaving thirty-six guns and some seven 
hundred prisoners in the hands of the Russians. 

The retirement from Moscow had already begun. In 
the weary march through the devastated and now storm- 
swept and snow-covered country the cavalry lost hundreds 
of horses daily. At the battle of Malojaroslawetz, on 23 
October, there were still nearly ten thousand mounted men 
in the reserve, the corps cavalry and the cavalry of the 
Guard. When Smolensk was reached on 9 November, 
there were only four thousand four hundred, and of these 
twelve hundred, united under the command of Latour- 
Maubourg, were all that was left of the cavalry reserve. 
After the passage of the Beresina, on 26 November, only 
eighteen hundred were left, and Latour-Maubourg's com- 
mand had dwindled to one hundred, of whom eighty were 
Saxon cuirassiers. 

During the retreat Murat was continually beside Napoleon, 
travelling with him in his sledge or carriage. There is a 
legend that a ' Sacred Cohort ' was formed of cavalry 
officers, under the command of Grouchy, to act as the 
Emperor's bodyguard. But his escort was to the last 
supplied by a detachment of the cavalry of the Guard. In 
the latter stages of the retreat the chief use of the cavalry 
was to supply horse-flesh for the camp-kettles. Few of 
the unfortunate horses were fit even to carry their riders, 
far less to charge. Murat's role as a cavalry general had 
for the moment disappeared. 

From Molodetchno, on 3 December, he wrote to his 
daughter : — ' You will see by the date of this letter that I 
am two hundred leagues nearer you, but how far away I 
still am from you ! It is a long time since I last wrote. 
We are continually on the march. I am very thin and 
very tired, but nevertheless I am well, but I am very un- 
happy at being so far from my dear family. When shall 
I see you all again, my dear ones ? ' 



238 JOACHIM MURAT 

It was at Molodetchno, in the midst of the wreck of his 
aiTny, that the Emperor received the news of Malet's 
conspiracy at Paris, and reahzed that, after his disastrous 
failure, his throne itself was in danger. He quickly made 
up his mind that he must at once return to France, leaving 
to one of his marshals the difficult task of concentrating 
the remnants of the Grand Army on the frontiers of Germany, 
and preparing to make head against a Russian invasion in 
the coming year, which might well herald a national up- 
rising of the German people. 

Next day, as his carriage was dragged slowly along the 
snowy road in the midst of the columns of ragged, starving 
men, and while, from time to time, distant firing told that 
the Cossacks were hanging close upon his track, the Emperor 
told Murat that he was to take command, and discussed 
with him the dangers and possibilities of the situation. 
On the 5th, at Smorgoni, Napoleon held a council of war of 
the marshals. Murat, Berthier, Ney, Davout, Lefebvre, 
Mortier, and Bessieres were present. He told them of his 
intended return to Paris, and formally appointed the 
King of Naples to his new command. Then he bade them 
good-bye and drove away in his sledge, taking with him 
Caulaincourt, Duroc, Lobau, and Lefebvre-Desnouettes. 



MURAT LEAVES THE ARMY 239 



CHAPTER XV 

MURAT LEAVES THE ARMY — RETURN TO NAPLES — 

QUARREL WITH NAPOLEON OVERTURES TO THE 

ALLIES GOES TO DRESDEN 

1812-1813 



T 



"^HE orders which Napoleon gave to Murat before 
parting from him at Smorgoni were thus summed 
up:— 



' Rally the army at Wilna ; hold that city and take up 
winter quarters there, with the Austrians on the Niemen cover- 
ing Breszc, Grodno, and Warsaw, the Grand Army about Wilna 
and Kovno. In case the enemy's army continues its advance, 
and it is not considered possible to hold on east of the Niemen, 
the right will cover Warsaw, and if possible, Grodno, with the 
rest of the army in hne behind the Niemen, holding Kovno 
as a tete de pont.' 

There were magazines of supplies and ammunition 
accumulated at Wilna and Kovno. Napoleon's orders 
seemed simple enough on paper, but the task he had left 
to Murat was a burden for a giant. It was easy to write 
that the Grand Army was to spend the winter holding 
Wilna, or in any case the line of the Niemen, but the Grand 
Army was no longer an effective fighting force. Seven 
weeks of misery had reduced it to a wreck, a dispirited, 
disorganized crowd, wasted with hunger and disease, losing 
hundreds daily as it was hustled back through the driving 
snow, and hundreds more each night in the frozen, often 
fireless, bivouacs. The Prussians on the left and the 
Austrians on the right had not ventured so far, had suffered 
comparatively little, and had preserved their organization. 



240 JOACHIM MURAT 

but in the face of disaster these were doubtful allies. At 
any moment they might range themselves on the side of 
the advancing enemy. 

And Murat was no giant. At the best of times he could 
not have grappled with the problems of a vast campaign, 
and now he was broken in spirit and worn out with fatigue 
and cold. Worst of all he had ceased to believe in Napoleon's 
star or in the possibility of final success. The Emperor, 
when he parted with him, had no idea of his state of mind. 
One of his last acts had been to prove his friendship for him 
by conferring on young Achille Murat the principality of 
Ponte Corvo, forfeited by Bernadotte after his defection 
from Napoleon's cause. He thought he could rely on his 
old companion-in-arms, the husband of his favourite sister. 
But Murat was now beginning to think again of how best 
he could keep his kingdom amid the coming downfall of 
the Imperial system. He was anxious to be back at Naples 
again, and fighting for his own hand. The Grand Army 
he regarded as beyond saving. 

He reached Wilna on 8 December. The Emperor's 
trusted friend, Maret, Duke of Bassano, met him there, 
gave him an account of the supplies collected in the place, 
and spoke of arrangements for spending the winter there. 
' No, no,' replied Murat, ' I don't mean to get myself caught 
in this hole.' Berthier, who asked for orders for the army, 
was curtly dismissed. ' You know better than me what 
ought to be done. Give the orders yourself,' said Murat. 
There is no doubt that Berthier, as chief of the staff, ought 
to have taken the responsibility of at once setting to work 
to distribute the clothes, rations, and cartridges in the 
magazines, but little was done, and when the place was 
hurriedly evacuated, on the approach of the Russians, most 
of these supplies fell into their hands. They occupied 
Wilna on lo December. 

During the retirement from Wilna on Kovno a great part 
of what remained of the military train, including the 
treasure of the army, was abandoned because the exhausted 
teams could no longer drag the wagons over the icy ground. 



MURAT LEAVES THE ARMY 241 

Ney, with his corps reduced to 1500 men, covered the 
movement. But it was found impossible to make a stand 
even at Kovno. On the 13th Murat recrossed the Niemen 
and ordered the army to concentrate about Gumbinnen, 
on the hne of the river. On the evening of the 15th he 
estabhshed his own headquarters at Wirballen, and next 
day wrote to the Emperor that everything was going from 
bad to worse ; that he could do no good and intended to 
hand over the command to Eugene, ' who had more ex- 
perience of administration,' and that he thought he himself 
would be more useful at Paris or Naples. He would leave 
the army if he did not hear to the contrary from the Emperor 
in a fortnight. On the same day Berthier sent Napoleon 
a dispatch in cipher in which he said :— 

' The King of Naples is the first of men for executing the 
orders given by a Commander-in-chief on the battlefield. The 
King of Naples is in every way the most incapable of acting 
as Commander-in-chief himself. He ought to be at once 
superseded. The viceroy (Eugene) is full of energy and health, 
and the Duke of Elchingen (Ney) and Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr 
have his entire confidence.' 

Berthier had seen that Murat was helplessly despairing of 
the situation. Murat himself confirmed the secret message 
of the chief of the staff by writing the very next day to 
Napoleon that he could not remain with the army. He 
had done enough, he said, to show his devotion to the 
Emperor, and he would return to the front when there was 
again a chance of fighting, but now it was a matter of 
administration and reorganization and he could not stay 
when the interests of his kingdom and his subjects called him 
back to Naples. 

On the 1 8th he held a council of war of the corps com- 
manders at Gumbinnen, and the state of nervous anxiety 
and irritation in which he was, led to a painful scene. 
He insisted that the line of the Niemen was now untenable, 
and he intended to withdraw his headquarters to Konigs- 
berg. To those who urged that an effort must be made 
to carry out the Emperor's plan of holding the line of the 
Q 



242 JOACHIM MURAT 

frontier river, he replied with an outburst of despairing 
anger against him. ' What could they do to save a mad- 
man ? ' he asked. ' His cause was hopeless ; there was 
not a prince in Europe who would now trust his word or 
his treaties. As for himself he was sorry he had rejected 
advances made to him by the English. Only for that he 
would still be as safe on his throne as the Emperor of 
Austria or the King of Prussia.' Davout broke in with 
an indignant protest. ' They are princes/ he said, ' by 
the grace of God, long possession, and the traditional loyalty 
of their people, but as for you, you are only king by the 
grace of Napoleon and at the cost of French blood. You 
can only be king while you stand by Napoleon and France. 
It is black ingratitude that is blinding you.' * I am as 
much King of Naples as Francis is Emperor of Austria, 
and I can do as I please,' answered Murat, but the looks of 
the marshals told him that he had gone too far, and he 
returned to the discussion of military details. Berthier, 
with perhaps an excess of caution, did not report Murat's 
outburst to Napoleon, but he wrote to him : * The King 
of Naples is very unsettled in his ideas and I insist more 
than ever on the statement in my cipher dispatch.' 

Murat was indeed unsettled. On 21 December he had 
approved of the secret armistice between Schwarzenberg 
and Miloradovitch, by which it was agreed that the Austrians 
were simply to manoeuvre against the Russian left with- 
out fighting, as if at peace manoeuvres, the result being 
that Schwarzenberg gradually evacuated the Grand Duchy 
of Warsaw. About the same time Murat sent to Vienna 
on a confidential mission two of his Neapolitan staff-officers, 
Prince Cariati and the Duke Caraffa de Noja, both of whom 
had connections in the Austrian capital by marriage. 
They were to find out if an arrangement with Austria was 
possible for the maintenance of Murat at Naples in case of 
a disaster to the French Empire. 

The line of the Niemen was abandoned to the Russians, 
who were now free to enter East Prussia. On 19 December 
Murat established his headquarters at Konigsberg. There 



MURAT LEAVES THE ARMY 243 

for a moment he seemed to recover something of his old 
spirit, and wrote to Belhard a letter that was in strange 
contradiction with his own dispatches to the Emperor. 
' Every one/ he said, ' is asking for permission to leave the 
army. I am indignant at this state of demoralization. 
If this state of things continues one cannot foresee where 
the mischief will stop. Speak to the generals of the cavalry ; 
talk of their glory ; remind them of the days of Wertingen, 
Prenzlau, Lubeck, Eylau, and the Moskowa. Is the cavalry 
to retire any further before miserable Cossacks that it 
once drove before it, with drums beating, for three hundred 
leagues ? ' But the ink of the letter to Belhard was hardly 
dry when once more he wrote to Napoleon that he thought he 
could now return to Naples without detriment to the army, 
as it was about to take up its winter quarters in East Prussia. 

The first reinforcements were arriving from France, half- 
drilled conscripts, many of them mere boys. Macdonald, 
with a mixed force of Polish, Westphalian, and Bavarian 
troops, had evacuated Courland and, occupying Tilsit, 
regained touch with the centre of the Grand Army. Murat 
issued orders for a counter-attack on the Russians and 
thought for a moment of regaining the line of the Niemen, 
but, on 26 December, came the news that Yorck and the 
Prussians had declared for the enemy. Murat wrote to 
Macdonald that ' the treason of Yorck ' altered everything. 
There must be a general retreat on Elbing, Dantzic, and the 
line of the Oder. 

Murat arrived at Elbing on 2 January. Leaving a large 
garrison under Rapp at Dantzic, he directed the main body 
of the Grand Army, now numbering only some 20,000 
effective men, on Posen. Kutusoff had crossed the Niemen 
with 40,000 men. He, too, had suffered during the march 
from Moscow, and he had left 70,000 behind him in two 
months and abandoned 400 guns on the way. 

At Posen, on 15 January, Murat, who had now lost all 
confidence in the Emperor's cause, announced to Berthier 
that he must leave the army. He gave as his reason that 
he was ill. There is no doubt that he was anything but 



244 JOACHIM MURAT 

well, but he exaggerated on this point. He told them he 
was going to rest for a while as King Jerome's guest at 
Cassel. Berthier tried to dissuade him, but aU he could 
obtain was that he should remain two days longer at Posen 
to give time for Eugene to arrive and take over the com- 
mand. That same day Murat wrote to Napoleon : — 

' Sire. Although I have already written to your Majesty 
that I could not retain the command of the Grand Army, 
nevertheless I would not have taken the step of leaving it, 
only that the state of illness to which I am reduced during 
the last five or six days makes it absolutely impossible for 
me to occupy myself with business. In this state of things 
I find myself compelled to write the two letters of which I 
herewith send copies to your Majesty. I flatter myself that 
you will do justice to my sentiments towards you to the extent 
of believing in the sorrow I feel at ceasing for the moment to 
serve you, but I hope that a stay of some months in the favour- 
able climate of Naples will enable me in the spring to return 
and resume my old command.' 

And he added in a postscript : — 

* I have fever and the beginning of a marked attack of jaundice.' 

The letters enclosed were addressed to Berthier as chief 
of the staff and to Eugene as his successor in the command. 
After an interview with the latter he left Posen on 17 
January, accompanied by his aide-de-camp. General Rosetti. 
Instead of paying a visit to Cassel he travelled right through 
to Naples. ' Not bad for a sick man ! ' wrote Eugene. 

Napoleon was very angry at what he described as Murat's 
desertion of the army. To Eugene he wrote : ' To me the 
conduct of the King of Naples seems utterly irregular, and 
such that I was almost inclined to have him arrested as 
an example to others. He is a brave man on the battle- 
field, but he is lacking in consistency and moral sense.' 
The Emperor further showed his feehng by publishing an 
implied censure on Murat in the following announcement 
in the Monifeur : ' The King of Naples, being indisposed, 
has had to give up the command of the army, which he has 
handed over to the Viceroy. The latter is more accustomed 



RETURN TO NAPLES 245 

to administrative work on a large scale, and has the entire 
confidence of the army.' 

Murat arrived, on the last day of January, at the castle of 
San Leucio near Caserta, where he found the queen and 
her children waiting to welcome him. Caroline thought 
his departure from the army a mistake, and on the 15th 
she had written to persuade him to remain with it, but he 
was on his way home before the letter reached him. As 
regent during his absence she had shown a tact and energy 
worthy of a sister of Napoleon. Her position had been 
rendered difficult by a provision in the decree of regency 
stipulating that all matters of importance should be referred 
to Murat himself, and her husband had sent to her for 
publication orders imposing new taxes, a somewhat shabby 
attempt to evade his share of the unpopularity they might 
cause by letting it be supposed they were levied only by a 
proclamation of the queen regent. Caroline, however, 
had prudently suspended all questions of new taxation till 
the return of the king, and, on the other hand, she had taken 
it upon herself to act on more than one important matter 
without the long delay that would have resulted from a 
correspondence with a distant headquarters in Russia. 
Murat was not quite satisfied with the display of inde- 
pendence, and he was troubled by rumours that had reached 
him as to Caroline's private conduct in his absence. This, 
added to her dissatisfaction with his abrupt departure 
from the army, made the relations between the king and 
queen anything but cordial for a while. 

On the day he reached Caserta Murat wrote to Napoleon 
announcing his arrival and saying that he was still very 
unwell, and was only sorry that his state of health made it 
impossible for him to serve his Majesty actively for a 
while. He no longer spoke of fever and jaundice, but 
attributed his illness to fatigue and exposure and the 
after effects of two minor wounds received in action in 
Russia, a lance wound in the thigh, and the blow of a spent 
bullet that had caused a severe contusion and a tumour in 
his side. Those who saw him on his arrival reported that 



246 JOACHIM MURAT 

he looked worn and haggard. Anxiety and mental worry 
had told on him even more than the exposure and fatigues 
of the disastrous campaign. 

Napoleon did not answer this letter. But it was hardly 
dispatched when a letter from the Emperor reached him, 
dated 26 January, 1813. Napoleon wrote in anger : — 

' I don't want to talk to you of the displeasure I feel at your 
course of conduct since my departure from the army, for that 
is the result of your weakness of character. However, I have 
thought it right to give my opinion of it frankly to your wife, 
the Queen of Naples. You are a good soldier on the field of 
battle, but elsewhere you have neither energy nor character. 
I presume you are not one of those who think the lion is dead. 
If 3^ou count on this you make a mistake. Since my depar- 
ture from Wilna you have done me all the harm you could. 
The title of king has turned your head. If you want to keep 
that title you must conduct yourself differently from what 
you have so far done. The opportunity for reinstating your- 
self in my good opinion will not be long before it presents itself.' 

The letter to Caroline, to which Napoleon alludes, had 
arrived two days before, but she had hesitated to show it 
to Murat. It was a brief note : — 

' Your husband, the King of Naples, deserted the army on 
the i6th. He is a brave man on the battlefield, but he is 
weaker than a woman or a monk when he is not in sight of 
the enemy. He has no moral courage. I leave it to you to 
express to him all the displeasure I have felt at his conduct 
in this matter.' 

Napoleon's letters and the hardly veiled censure in the 
Moniteur made Murat angrily suspicious. He thought that 
Berthier had probably spoken on a hint from the Emperor, 
when at parting he had said that he knew Murat was too 
good a Frenchman not to be ready to sacrifice his crown, 
if need be, for the sake of Napoleon. He suspected that the 
return of the Bourbon king and his Austrian queen to 
Naples might be part of a bargain made without consulting 
him. When he re-entered his capital on 4 February the 
acclamations of the crowd made him flatter himself that he 



QUARREL WITH NAPOLEON 247 

was a popular king, who could rule even without Napoleon's 
gracious consent. He was now really ill. For some days 
he saw no one. On the 9th he met his council of ministers 
for the first time. On the nth, for the first time, he rode 
out. 

Till the end of the month he was waiting impatiently 
for a reply from Napoleon to letters which Caroline had 
written to him. No answer came. Through his wife he 
had offered to send a small reinforcement of cavalry to 
the Imperial army. No notice was taken of the offer. 
On 26 February there were signs that he might soon need 
all his troops in Naples. Two British frigates suddenly 
appeared off the island of Ponza, and landed a battalion 
from Sicily. The garrison of Ponza, after a brief show of 
resistance, surrendered the fortress. 

On 10 March Durant, the French ambassador at Naples, 
reported to Paris that he did not like the attitude of the 
king. Murat was reserved and suspicious. He had gone 
so far as to say that he thought the Austrians would be 
wise if they stood neutral and acted as mediators in the 
quarrel between the Alhes and Napoleon, and the am- 
bassador thought the King of Naples was inclined to the 
same policy. 

Durant had judged rightly. Murat was already in secret 
unofficial communication with Mettemich, through Prince 
Cariati at Vienna. Presently Mettemich refused to pledge 
himself to anything definite, or even seriously discuss the 
situation with Murat's envoy, unless he could show that 
he was provided with full powers. Accordingly, on 20 
April, Cariati was named Neapohtan ambassador to the 
court of Vienna. It was Murat's first definite step towards 
defection from Napoleon. 

Caroline had told Durant that the Emperor's angry silence 
was alarming her husband, and the ambassador urged him 
to write some reassuring message to his brother-in-law. 
Durant considered that otherwise Murat would take a line 
of his own in the hope of securing his crown. He was already 
increasing his army, and had started on a journey through 



248 JOACHIM MURAT 

the southern provinces in order to try to call forth the 
personal lo^'alty of the people. 

Before setting out on this journey from Naples on 12 
April, Murat had written to Napoleon telling him he was 
at last sending off two squadrons to join the Imperial army. 
He referred to the censure in the Moniteur and protested 
that he had not deserved it. During the Russian cam- 
paign he had risked his life like a common soldier. When 
he bade farewell to the Emperor at Smorgoni he had pro- 
mised to remain with the army so long as he could be useful, 
and he declared that he had kept his word and only left 
Posen when, broken in health, he could no longer usefully 
command. He asked his brother-in-law to tell him frankly 
what he wished him to do. He protested his devotion to 
him. He would like to be beside him, but he thought he 
would be more useful if he stayed in Italy and organized 
the defence of the peninsula. 

He was travelling about Apulia, Basilicata and Calabria 
till the end of the month. Every^vhere he met with a loyal 
reception. One incident of his progress is worth noting. 
He spent a few hours at the little town of Pizzo, on the west 
coast of Calabria. He talked a while with the aged parish 
priest. Canon Masdea, and gave him alms for his church 
and for the poor. The priest and the soldier king w^re to 
meet again some two 3'eai-s later under very different 
circumstances. 

On 29 April he was back at Naples. There he heard that 
Napoleon had left Paris to join the amiy in Gemiany 
without taking any notice of his letter. This ended aU his 
hesitations. He set himself to find among the opponents 
of Napoleon allies who would buy his defection from the 
Emperor by guaranteeing him his throne, 

Cariati's mission to Vienna had opened the way for an 
arrangement with the Austrians, and while Murat was away 
in the south his minister of police, the Duke of Campochiaro, 
had prepared an opening for negotiations with the English. 
On the pretext of discussing with Colonel Coffin, the com- 
mandant of the garrison of Ponza, trade questions arising 



OVERTURES TO THE ALLIES 249 

out of the blockade system, Campochiaro had sent one of 
his agents, a certain CercuH, to the island. Cerculi, after 
the formal business was ended, told the colonel that there was 
a quarrel between Napoleon and Murat, and that the latter 
would be glad to know if any arrangement could be made 
to conciliate his own interests and those of England in order 
to save his crown. There is no proof that Murat had 
authorized this communication. It was Campochiaro's 
own act, arising out of his shrewd judgment of the situation. 
Colonel Coffin said he could not himself do anything, but 
promised to refer the suggestion to his chief. Lord William 
Bentinck, who represented England in Sicily. 

On 7 May Bentinck authorized Coffin to enter into 
unofficial negotiations with Campochiaro. He told him to 
find out precisely what Murat wanted, and suggested that 
to prove he meant business the King of Naples should, at 
an early date, hand over the fortress of Gaeta to the Anglo- 
Sicilians. Writing on 16 May Bentinck further proposed 
as a possible basis of agreement that Murat should declare 
for the Allies against Napoleon, and march northward with 
his army. But on the conclusion of the war he was to retain 
Naples only until another kingdom was found for him 
elsewhere. Bentinck meant that whatever happened the 
kingdom of the Two Sicilies was to be restored to the 
Bourbons. 

On 2g May Cerculi came again to Ponza to discuss the 
proposed bargain with Coffin. Even now Murat did not 
appear in the negotiation. He had left Naples again and 
gone to spend the month of May with Caroline at Portici. 
He was anxiously watching the course of events in Germany. 
For a while it seemed as if Napoleon would hold his own. 
He had won the battle of Lutzen, occupied Dresden, and 
then beaten the Allies at Bautzen. In the last week of 
May there was an armistice. Russia and Prussia were 
negotiating with the Emperor. Austria, till now neutral, 
but with her armies on a war footing, was anxious for 
peace. But if the armistice came to nothing she was ready 
to throw her sword into the scale on the side of the Allies. 



250 JOACHIM MURAT 

No wonder Murat was hesitating. Dnrant wrote to the 
Emperor that the King of Naples was ' on the edge of an 
ab5^s,' and urged that Napoleon should appeal to his old 
comradeship and at the eleventh hour secure his loyalty. 

Cerculi returned to Naples with the news that Bentinck 
himself was coming to Ponza on his way to Spain, and 
\nshed to meet a duly authorized representative of Murat. 
At tliis stage of the proceedings the king must have been 
aware of what was in progress, for Felice Nicolas, the 
keeper of the archives at the Foreign Ofhce in Naples, who 
was sent to Ponza on i Jime, was given full powers to treat 
and precise instructions as to what Murat wished. Nicolas 
met Bentinck on 2 Jime. The Englishman put forward 
the proposals he had sent from Palermo. Nicolas replied 
that his master could not hand over Gaeta and would not 
renounce his rights to Naples even for a compensation 
elsewhere. But if England would guarantee his cro^^'n he 
was ready to march northwards with 40,000 men. Bentinck 
pointed out that at a later stage of the war England might 
not be so anxious to accept Murat's help. It would be 
useful now. It might count for very little soon. If his 
terms were accepted he would sign a convention at once, 
and he was siure his Government would ratify it. INIurat 
might not have such an offer again. Nicolas said his 
instructions would not allow liim to go further, and the 
conference ended, but, before saiUng from Ponza, Bentinck 
left with Coffin a draft convention on the lines he had laid 
down, and authorized the colonel to sign it if Murat would 
accept the offer. 

WTiile Nicolas was at Ponza, Durant had been asked by 
Queen Caroline to request the Emperor, in her name, to 
send a friendl}^ letter to his brother-in-law. Before Durant's 
dispatch could reach Dresden there arrived at Naples an 
angry letter from Napoleon addressed to the Duke of San 
Gallo, the Neapolitan Minister of Foreign Affaii-s, demanding 
the instant recall of Prince Cariati from Vienna. For 
three days San Gallo hesitated to show the letter to the 
king. When at last Murat read it there was a furious 



OVERTURES TO THE ALLIES 251 

outburst. He was on the point of revolt. But more 
prudent counsels prevailed. On 11 June San Gallo wrote 
to the Emperor that Cariati, though he would remain at 
Vienna, would be directed to act in concert with the French 
ambassador there. 

Events now moved rapidly. Though Murat was not 
aware of what was happening, the English Government was 
in close consultation with Mettemich as to his proposals, 
and, influenced by the Austrian, was disposed to go far 
beyond Bentinck's offer. It seemed now likely thcit the 
war would be renewed, with Austria added to the Coalition. 
The help of the Neapolitan army would be enough to paralyse 
the action of Eugene and the French in northern Italy. 
Mettemich thought it was worth buying at Murat's own 
price. The London cabinet was coming round to the view 
that he might be allowed to rule at Naples, and a com- 
pensation could be found elsewhere for the Bourbons of 
Sicily. But by the time this was arranged and Cariati was 
informed of the joint views of Austria and England, Murat 
had changed his mind. The change came not a day too 
soon. 

In the middle of June Napoleon had directed his war 
minister, Clarke, Due de Feltre, to write to Murat that 
Austria was about to join the Coalition, and he must there- 
fore ask him to send a division of the Neapolitan army to 
Bologna by 15 July. On 18 June Durant informed the 
Duke of San Gallo that if the division did not march from 
Naples by 10 July he would have to leave the city and 
break off diplomatic relations with the king's Government. 
The same day Murat replied that if Austria joined the 
Coalition he would himself march northward with 25,000 
or 30,000 men. But he would not hand them over to Eugene 
or have them divided among the French garrisons and 
corps. He would keep them under his own command. 
This would, of course, preserve his eventual liberty of action. 

At this critical moment the Moniteur published a state- 
ment that Ponza had been betrayed to the EngHsh. Murat 
sent an indignant denial. The ganison, he said, though 



252 JOACHIM MURAT 

surprised, had made a brave defence and only yielded to 
superior force. Then the Moniteur published a paragraph 
from a London paper announcing that one more of the 
marshals was about to desert Napoleon, that trade had 
been reopened between Sicily and Naples, and that King 
Joachim's Government was in friendly negotiation with 
Austria and England. The publication of the news was 
no doubt intended by Napoleon as a warning to Murat. 
Its effect was to make him for the moment more bitterly 
hostile than ever, and Caroline now for the first time seemed 
to share his views. So far in his reports to Vienna, the 
Austrian ambassador at Naples, the Count Von Mier, had 
spoken only of the king's desire for an understanding with 
Austria. But on 29 June he wrote to Metternich : ' Their 
Majesties are awaiting impatiently a reply to Cariati's 
proposals, in order to know what course they are to take in 
case of war between France and Austria. The king is 
always disposed to support our interests.' 

To Mier, Murat had said that he was tired of being insulted 
in the Moniteur and was half inclined to send Durant his 
passports. To Durant he denied the alleged negotiations, 
and San Gallo explained that at Ponza there had been 
question only of commercial matters. In the first days of 
July Murat was still waiting impatiently for news from 
Cariati. He would have to make a decision soon for the 
loth was the day when Durant would leave Naples if he 
did not obey the order to send a di\'ision northwards. On 
the 3rd Caroline wrote to Napoleon appealing to him to 
adopt a more friendly attitude towards her husband. 
Next day Murat followed this up with another letter to 
Napoleon in which he defined his policy. He was under no 
obligation, he said, to supply further contingents to the 
Imperial army. Enough of Neapolitan blood had already 
been shed all over Europe. He would keep his army for 
the defence of Italy, and, after the injurious way in which 
he had been compared with Eugene in the Moniteur, he would 
not send any of his Neapolitans to serve under the Viceroy. 
But he was ready to march northwards with 25,000 men. 



OVERTURES TO THE ALLIES 253 

keeping them under his own orders, and as he would have 
to leave most of his artillery in the south and wanted arms 
for new levies, he would ask for cannon and muskets to be 
supplied from the French arsenals. He also asked for the 
NeapoUtan troops in Spain to be sent back to him. If 
this were done he would answer for the defence of Italy. 
Then he went on : — 

' I know your Majesty believes that you have cause of com- 
plaint against me, and perhaps I have sometimes expressed 
too strongly the sorrow I was made to feel at the injustice 
to which I saw myself subjected, but the remembrance of 
all you have done for me, the attachment that I have vowed 
to you, the feelings I must have for France, have always filled 
my mind, and my most ardent wish has always been to take 
my place again beside you as your lieutenant, as a French 
soldier, and as king of a nation which I have tried to inspire 
with the military spirit with which you have animated France. 
Resume, Sire, the confidence that was founded upon twenty 
years of tried fidelity. The oldest of your lieutenants, your 
sister, your nephews, ask for your affection, and ask it in the 
name of your dearest interests. For it is not well that Europe 
should believe that your Majesty can cast away a friend such 
as I am, and yet this is the report our common enemies are 
trying to spread. Remember, Sire, that I consider my honour 
involved in myself commanding the Neapolitan troops which 
fight for you, and that I can end the noble career through 
which I have lived, under your auspices, by losing my throne 
and my Hfe, but not by sacrificing my honour. Write to me. 
Sire, that you accept my offer, and on the battlefield your 
enemies shall see that I am worthy of you, worthy of myself.' 

While waiting for a reply he wrote to inform Clarke 
and Berthier of his proposal to the Emperor, and asked for 
arms to be sent to Naples, and for the return of the Neapohtan 
troops serving in Catalonia and in the fortresses of northern 
Italy. He persuaded Durant to defer his departure from 
Naples on the ground that he was daily expecting a reply 
to his offers from Dresden. On 26 July a letter arrived. 
It was addressed by Napoleon, not to Murat but to Carohne. 

The Emperor told his sister that her husband was refusing 



254 JOACHIM MURAT 

to send the reinforcements required from him to the army 
of Italy because he was in treasonable correspondence 
with Prussians, Austrians, and English — with all the enemies 
of France. If this was not true let him come to Dresden 
and clear himself of the accusations made against him. 
It was an unpleasant answer to his eloquent appeals. All 
day Murat and Caroline were together discussing the 
difficult situation. They saw no one. Next day the king 
met the Council of Ministers. 

Without telling them all that had occurred, he informed 
them that he had been summoned to Dresden. They all 
opposed his departure. Most of them were more or less 
openly committed to the pohcy of revolt. He surprised 
them by replying that he must go to Napoleon. Perhaps, 
if he could have seen the letters from Cariati and Mettemich 
that were already on the way from Vienna, he would have 
decided differently. 

On 30 July Caroline wrote a letter to Napoleon intended 
to prepare the way for her husband's arrival at Dresden. 
She said that he had been pained at the Emperor not 
WTiting to him and sending her a letter full of accusations 
against her husband. It is not easy to believe that Caroline 
had been left in complete ignorance of the negotiations 
with the Allies, but in her letter to her brother she boldly 
denied them. Murat, she said, was furious at the idea that 
the Emperor could think him capable of such conduct. 
His enemies had been tr3dng to make a breach between 
two faithful friends. Her husband was not such a fool as 
to fall into the clumsy traps laid for him by the Allies. 
His presence at Dresden would prove how false such stories 
were, for he could not live without loving and serving his 
Emperor. 

Murat wrote more briefly. He protested his loyalty. 
If the war was renewed the Emperor's enemies would soon 
see that they could not count upon him. ' Sire,' he said, 
* do not doubt about my heart, it is worth more than my 
head,' and he described himself as Napoleon's ' most 
affectionate brother.' 



i 



GOES TO DRESDEN 255 

After placing the regency once more in Caroline's hands, 
he left Naples on 2 August. He knew Napoleon's affec- 
tion for young people, so he took with him letters from 
his sons and daughters congratulating their uncle on his 
coming fgte day, the 15th. On the 3rd, as he drove across 
the Campagna, he met a courier travelling post-haste 
for Naples with Cariati's long-expected dispatches. He 
took them and tore them open, but they told him nothing. 
They were all in cipher, and the key was in San Gallo's 
hands at Naples. He sealed them up and handed them 
back to the messenger. Could he have read them he 
might have turned back, for they contained Mettemich's 
offer to guarantee him the crown of Naples if he would 
declare for the Allies. Austria had decided to join the 
Coalition. 



256 JOACHIM MURAT 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE LEIPZIG CAMPAIGN — MURAT ABANDONS THE 

FALLING EMPIRE TREATY WITH AUSTRIA — 

HESITATING PART IN THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN 

1813-1814 

LATE OR the evening of 3 August, Murat reached 
Rome. He had an intei"vie\y ^\ith the French 
_^ mihtary governor, General MioUis. He told him 
that if there was peace he would be back in a fort- 
night. If there was war, he would stay with the 
Emperor. In that case the Anglo-Sicilians would pro- 
bably raid his kingdom, but he had left 30,000 men 
to defend it. Travelling by way of Roveredo and 
through the Tyrol, by Innsbruck and Botzen, he reached 
Dresden on the 14th. He had passed through Austrian 
territory on the eve of the declaration of war, from 
Vienna. 

Perhaps it was fortunate for him that he came at a 
moment when for Napoleon all other considerations were 
dwarfed by the necessity of at once facing the armies of 
the Coahtion on the battle-ground he had himself chosen 
in Saxony. The Emperor had gathered more than half a 
million men to meet the forces of German}^ Austria, and 
Russia, acting from \\ddely separated bases against his 
own central position. It was largely an improvised force. 
The ranks of the infantry were filled with beardless boys 
hurried up from France, by anticipating the conscription 
of coming years. The cavalry made a formidable show 
on the muster-rolls of the Grand Army, some 40,000 horse- 



1 



THE LEIPZIG CAMPAIGN 257 

men organized in five corps. ^ But they were no longer 
the splendid squadrons of the great days of the Grand 
Army. These had been destroyed amid the snows of 
the Russian steppes. Infantry could be improvised, 
but not cavalry. Tens of thousands of trained horses 
could not be provided by signing a decree. In this autumn 
campaign of 1813 the cavalry were ' the weakest part 
of Napoleon's organization. They were, as a whole, mounted 
on horses not broken, but broken down.' ^ In such an 
emergency it was something to be able to give them a 
chief whose name was an inspiration, and who had so 
often shown the magnetic faculty of imparting his own 
headlong courage to thousands of horsemen in the crisis 
of a fight. 

So, instead of the stormy interview he expected, Murat 
found himself welcomed by his Imperial brother-in-law. 
It was no time for recriminations on his past conduct. 
He was given the opportunity of wiping out all memory 
of it by new services in the field. The day after he reached 
Dresden, he rode beside Napoleon at the review that cele- 
brated his fete day, and an order to the Grand Army gave 
the King of Naples his old position of commander-in-chief 
of the cavalry. 

Some of the historians of the campaign view his conduct 
in the field in the light of the shifting policy he had adopted, 
and see in his mistakes and failures deliberate acts of 
treachery. But their theory fails to explain the fact 
that more than once he rendered brilliant and whole-hearted 
service to the Emperor, even in those dark days when, 

1 Colonel Maude {The Leipzig Campaign, p. 148) thus tabulates the 
organization and numbers of the cavalry :- 



ist Cavalry Corps. — Latour Maubourg, 
2nd ,, ,, Sebastiani, 

3rd ,, ,, Arighi, 

4th ,, ,, Kellerman, 

5th ,, ,, L'Heritier, 



Squadrons. Guns. Men. 

78 36 16,537 

52 18 10,304 

27 24 6,000 

24 12 3,923 

20 6 4,000 



201 96 40,764 



Besides the cavalry of the Guard and the army corps. 
* Maude, The Leipzig Campaign, p. 150, 



258 JOACHIM MURAT 

after a first flash of victory, defeat seemed all but inevit- 
able. There is no need to blacken Murat's memory with 
the accusation of having consciously played the traitor 
while he rode at the head of his squadrons, and of repre- 
senting him as having deliberately chosen to incur defeat, 
or held back from reaping the fruits of success. 

It is true that his whole conduct was inconsistent. His 
action as a king and a politician was in flagrant contra- 
diction to his action as a soldier and a general While 
he commanded the French cavalry his agent, Cariati, 
was still either at Vienna or actually in the field with the 
headquarter staff of one or other of the alhed armies, and, 
during the campaign, Murat received from him reports 
on further offers made by Austria and England. Von 
Mier, the Austrian ambassador, was still at Naples, and 
the regent. Queen Caroline, was finding one pretext after 
another for refusing to send a single soldier to reinforce 
the army of Italy, notwithstanding pressing requests from 
Durant, the French ambassador, and Eugene, who was 
commanding against the Austrians in northern Italy.' 
But, though he was thus keeping in reserve the possibility 
of an arrangement with Austria, and holding his army 
of Naples back, to be used, perhaps, to decide the fate of 
Italy at a later period, his own ardent nature made it 
all but impossible for him to play a half-hearted part 
on the actual field of battle. With his squadrons behind 
him, and before him even the very Austrians who might 
soon be his allies, he felt the battle ardour in his blood, 
and for the moment was a fighting leader and nothing 
more, ready to charge with all the old furious energy of 
Aboukir, Wertingen, Eylau, and Borodino. 

For a man of solid character, accustomed to act on calm 
reason and conscience, not on the impulses and feelings of 
the moment, the position would have been impossible. 
But Murat was now like one of the old condoitieri, enjoying 
fighting for its own sake, without disregarding the solid 
gains it might bring him, and, at the same time, quite pre- 
pared to fight on the other side as soon as it was clear that 



THE LEIPZIG CAMPAIGN 259 

there lay the more briUiant prospects for the future. He 
was no champion of lost causes, and he knew more of horse- 
manship than of chivalry. 

In the first great encounter of the autumn campaign, 
the battle of Dresden (26 and 27 August), Murat did splendid 
service. On the first day darkness had left the battle 
undecided. In the night Napoleon planned a counterstroke. 
Before sunrise Murat was marching to turn the Austrian 
left with Latour-Maubourg's cavalry, reinforced by a division 
under Pajol (sixty-eight squadrons and thirty guns), and 
supported by Victor's infantry corps and Teste's division 
(forty-four battahons and seventy-six guns). In aU he 
commanded some forty-iive thousand men. He marched 
through a deluge of rain. The infantry were sent to attack 
the Austrian left wing in front, while the cavalry moved 
round to charge them in flank and rear. The enemy 
formed squares to meet the cavalry charges, but it would 
seem that during the rain-storm the Austrians had not 
taken care of their paper-covered cartridges. When the 
squares were attacked only a few straggling shots could 
be fired from them. Most of the ammunition was soaked 
and useless. Under these conditions square after square 
was broken. The Austrian cavalry, coming to the rescue 
of the infantry, was charged by the French cuirassiers and 
routed. The fight had begun at ten o'clock ; by two the 
whole Austrian left was thoroughly broken up. Murat 
had taken thirty guns and twelve thousand prisoners, and 
more than four thousand of the enemy had been killed and 
wounded. He had opened the campaign by scoring an 
exceptionally complete and brilliant success. 

Following up the retiring enemy with his cavalry and 
Victor's infantry, he next day collected some six thousand 
more prisoners and captured a quantity of baggage and 
ammunition wagons. But the effect of Napoleon's victory 
of Dresden was sadly marred by the destruction of Van- 
damme's corps, overwhelmed in its attempt to cut off the 
retreat of the AlUes, and by the news that Bliicher had 
beaten Macdonald on the Katzbach. 



26o JOACHIM MURAT 

During September Murat was generally at the Emperor's 
headquarters, and left the actual leadership of the cavalry 
to his lieutenants. The defeat of Ney at Dennewitz, coming 
after the failures of Macdonald and Vandamme, made him 
take a gloomy view of the outlook. On 19 September he 
wrote to Campochiaro : ' Everything is going badly. 
The army is longing for peace. The Emperor alone stands 
out against the general feeling.' In this state of discourage- 
ment he was further depressed by a dispute with Napoleon. 
Durant had reported from Naples that it was impossible 
to persuade Murat's Government to reinforce the army of 
Italy, and there were disquieting reports of Cariati's activity 
at Vienna. Napoleon had an angry scene with his brother- 
in-law, and told him he must at once send the Austrian 
ambassador away from Naples and recall Cariati from 
Vienna. The only result was that Cariati left Vienna to 
join the Austrian headquarters in the field. On the eve 
of Leipzig he was able to send a Neapolitan staff officer to 
Murat with the news that Austria was still prepared to 
guarantee him his throne as the price of his defection from 
Napoleon. 

In the first days of October, under the pressure of the 
Allies, Napoleon abandoned Dresden and the Une of the 
Elbe and retired on Leipzig. While the Emperor engaged 
Bliicher and Bemadotte, Murat was to delay the advance 
of the Russians, and was given command of the corps of 
Victor, Poniatowski, and Lauriston, and the cavalry of 
Pajol and Kellerman. On 10 October he turned upon the 
Russians and stormed the town of Boma, inflicting a loss 
of 4000 men on the enemy. Forced to retire before 
Schwarzenberg's Austrians he fought, on the 14th, the 
battle of Liebertwolkwitz, famous for the hardest cavalry 
fighting of the campaign. Murat had imder his personal 
command three French and two Polish cavalry di\'isions, 
eighteen regiments in all, opposed to twenty-two Austrian, 
Prussian, and Cossack regiments. He held his own, and 
during the fight led charge after charge against the enemy's 
cavalry and artillery. Once he was cut off, and nearly 



THE LEIPZIG CAMPAIGN 261 

taken prisoner. ' Rends-toi, roi ! ' shouted a Prussian 
officer, threatening him with his sword point. Murat's 
orderly ran the Prussian through, and a party of French 
horsemen came to the rescue. A thousand prisoners taken 
during the day proved that Murat had won a soUd 
success. 

Two days later the Grand Army was concentrated round 
Leipzig, and the greatest battle of the nineteenth century 
began. Four corps of cavalry were present on the field 
on the i6th. Murat kept in reserve, under his personal 
command, Latour-Maubourg's corps and one of Pajol's 
cuirassier divisions. They were not in action till late in 
the day, when the Emperor ordered a great cavalry attack 
in two columns. 

General Letort charged on the right with the 4th and 
part of the 5th corps, and the dragoons of the Guard, under 
Bessieres, and Murat with the reserve on the left. Murat 
scattered the Russian cavalry of Pahlen, broke a square 
of infantry, rode over two batteries of artillery, and actually 
charged a screen of light cavalry that was protecting the 
rising ground where the Czar was watching the fight. 
The French onset was only checked by the rush of horsemen 
plunging into a stretch of marshy ground, where the Russian 
artillery opened on them at short range, and the tired 
horses could no longer struggle forward. Prince Cariati 
was riding beside the Russian Emperor, and the story goes 
that, as Alexander saw the storm of cavalry bursting 
through the Russian ranks with a leader well to the front, 
all flashing with gold and colour, he recognized that it 
was Murat, and turning to Cariati, said, ' Our ally is 
rather overdoing his part in concealing the game he is 
playing.' 

On the 17th there was a pause in the fighting. The 
French drew closer in upon Leipzig and took up their 
positions for the final two days' struggle. All day Murat 
was with Napoleon and Berthier, riding over the new 
positions and helping in the preparations for the decisive 
engagement. The night before he had actually received. 



262 JOACHIM MURAT 

by a roundabout way, one more reassuring message from 
Cariati. During the final struggle round Leipzig the 
cavalry had few opportunities. Murat commanded the 
centre of the line of defence. He directed one successful 
charge of Latour-Maubourg's cuirassiers against the Russian 
cavalry. It was during this stage of the fight that the 
Saxon cuirassiers attached to Latour-Maubourg's corps, 
though they did not, like so many of their comrades, desert 
to the enemy, refused to draw swords and charge beside the 
French. 

On the 19th Murat accompanied the Emperor in the 
hurried retreat from Leipzig. He went with him as far as 
Erfurt, which was reached on the 24th. He had made 
up his mind that Napoleon's cause was hopeless, and had 
decided to accept at the eleventh hour the offer made to 
him by Mettemich through Cariati. If he delayed longer 
his defection might not be worth buying. 

At Erfurt he told the Emperor that letters from Naples 
showed that his presence there was essential. He argued 
that he could be more useful in Italy than with the retreating 
army. He would march with the Neapolitan army to the 
help of Eugene, who must be now in serious difficulties in 
the north. Napoleon was at first reluctant to agree to his 
departure. Speaking of the interview to Von Mier, Murat 
said : ' I showed such a firm determination that I wrung 
his consent from him, and then I lost no time. I hurried 
away for fear he should withdraw it. Our farewell was not 
particularly cordial. He showed some ill-himiour and 
reproached me with always leaving him when things were 
difficult.' They were never to meet again. 

After his hurried departure from Erfurt, Murat travelled 
by way of Basel and the Simplon to Milan. On the way he 
sent a cipher dispatch to Cariati telling him that, as soon 
as he reached Naples, he would raise his army to 80,000 
men and declare for the Allies, but he now raised the price 
of his desertion. Sicily, he argued, was historically part 
of his kingdom. If the Bourbons were to retain the island 
he ought to have compensation elsewhere, and he suggested 



MURAT ABANDONS FALLING EMPIRE 263 

that it might be provided by adding part of the Papal 
States to Naples. 

At Basel he met Louis Bonaparte, the ex-King of Holland. 
Louis was writing long memoirs to Napoleon urging that 
he should restore him to his kingdom. Murat told him 
bluntly that he would have a better chance of regaining his 
throne if he threw in his lot with the Coalition, as he himself 
intended to do. 

After leaving his carriage half-buried in the snows of the 
Simplon, and riding forward on horseback, he reached 
Milan on 31 October. The Milanese had not forgotten his 
residence among them in the days of the Cisalpine Republic. 
His fame as a cavalry leader made them see in him a heroic 
figure, and those who were hoping for a united Italy re- 
garded the soldier King of Naples as a possible rallying 
point for the movement. He was received with acclama- 
tions in the streets of the Lombard capital. 

This was perhaps what suggested to him that he might 
make himself master of Italy without an open rupture 
with the Emperor. So from Milan he wrote a kind of 
ultimatum to Napoleon. It was practically a request to 
be given the command of all Italy : — 

' I am about to arrange to march at the head of 30,000 men, 
but I must know your intentions in a positive way. I beg 
your Majesty to let me know them without delay. It is no 
longer the time for temporizing or eluding a reply. I have 
the greatest desire to support you, but I must know how I 
am to do this. If I march I must have the command of the 
Roman States, and in case of a junction with the Viceroy's 
forces, who is to command ? I beg your Majesty to reply 
at once. Meanwhile I shall put everything to work to mobilize 
my army. I shall be all my life, Sire, the best and most 
attached of your friends.' 

Murat was now fuUy embarked in a course of thoroughly 
unscrupulous double-dealing. The wonder is that Napoleon 
had not already given up aU belief in his protestations of 
devotion. But though, since the parting at Erfurt, he had 
received damaging reports of his brother-in-law's overtures 



264 JOACHIM MURAT 

to the Allies, he still hesitated to abandon all hope of his 
support in Italy. 

At Milan Murat saw some of the chiefs of the Italianist 
party, and met his former aide-de-camp, De la Vauguyon. 
The talk was of an independent kingdom of Italy, extending 
from the Alps to Calabria. Vauguyon was directed to 
travel by Bologna to Rome, interviewing on his way the 
known sympathizers with this patriotic dream, amongst 
others. General Pino, who commanded a division of the army 
of Italy. 

From Milan Murat travelled to Florence, where he saw 
Elisa Bonaparte ; then to Rome, where he interviewed 
MioUis, He reached Naples on the evening of 4 November. 
There could be no answer yet to the letter he had written 
to Napoleon from Milan. But he was not so anxious now 
for a favourable reply, for he found that Caroline had also 
made up her mind that the Emperor's cause was hopeless, 
and had been preparing everything for the Austrian alhance. 
She had kept Von Mier at Naples, even after San Gallo had 
given him his passports, and she told him how well pleased 
she was with the ' generous proposals ' of the Emperor 
Francis. On 28 October, while Murat was still on his way 
to Milan, she had told the Austrian envoy that she con- 
sidered the time was come to accept them, and she had 
authorized him to go to Germany by way of Trieste to close 
up the bargain before it was too late. He was preparing 
to start when Murat arrived. She then wrote to him, 
telling him the king was sending proposals to Austria, and 
asking him to let it appear the offer came spontaneously 
from her husband. At the same time she promised that she 
would persuade Murat to accept whatever conditions were 
offered. So Von Mier remained at Naples to discuss the 
situation with the king. 

On 6 November Murat issued a general order to his army 
in which he spoke of a coming march to the north, but 
added that the troops would not be employed outside of 
Italy. This left the question open on which side they 
would be used. On the same day his official journal, the 



MURAT ABANDONS FALLING EMPIRE 265 

Moniteur des Deux Sidles, published a note stating that 
he had come back to Naples, by the Emperor's permission, to 
spend some time with his family, but would return to the 
front when his services were required. This communique 
made Von Mier anxious, but in an interview, which began 
on the evening of the 8th and lasted far into the night, 
Murat reassured him as to his intentions, and authorized 
him to go at once to Germany and lay before Mettemich 
the conditions on which he was ready to co-operate with the 
Austrians. Von Mier thought the claim for compensation 
for renouncing all rights to Sicily, which Murat had never 
possessed, was an exaggeration, but he made no objection. 
He wrote to Mettemich that he thought it was better to say 
nothing that would prevent the king from fully committing 
himself. Details could be discussed later. While Von 
Mier was on his way to Vienna, Murat sent an employ^ of 
his Foreign Office to Palermo to try to arrange for a truce 
with England and the reopening of trade between Naples 
and Sicily, 

It was soon after this that Fouche arrived in Naples. 
Driven by the Austrians from his governorship of the lUyrian 
provinces of the Empire, he had gone to Bologna, where he 
had talked with the local leaders of the Italianist party of 
the independence of Italy and of the help that Murat might 
give them if he placed himself at the head of a national 
movement. He was already preparing to find a place for 
himself in the new state of affairs that he anticipated would 
result from the downfall of Napoleon. He was about to 
return to France, when the Emperor, who had no suspicion 
of his contemplated treason, directed him to proceed to 
Rome and Naples, and report to him on the situation in 
central and southern Italy. 

Playing his double game, he wrote to Murat announcing 
his coming, and at the same time urged him to march his 
army up to Bologna as soon as possible. ' We both owe 
our fortune to the Emperor,' he wrote. ' It depends on 
him and on the integrity of his power.' When he arrived 
at Naples he found that Murat had just heard from 



266 JOACHIM MURAT 

Napoleon. One of his conditions had been granted. The 
Neapohtan army was to form an independent command, 
and not to take orders from Eugene. The Emperor flattered 
himself that this would be enough to secure the loyalty 
of his vassal. Durant had no such illusions. He wrote to 
Napoleon that Campochiaro and San Gallo were negotiating 
with Austria and England, and Murat was dreaming of 
making himself the chief of a united Italy. Perhaps it 
was the memory of his recent services in the field that 
made Napoleon write that if the King of Naples would 
march northwards with his army all would yet be well, 
and Italy would be saved for the Empire. 

The army was already moving. On 21 November the 
ist division, under General Carascosa, left Naples. On 
2 December it arrived at Rome, where MioUis was directed 
to put the French supply magazines at Carascosa's disposal. 
The Royal Guard followed the ist division to Rome. In the 
first week of December the 2nd division, under General 
d'Ambrosio, marched by the Adriatic coast roads to Ancona. 
But the secretary of the Austrian embassy at Naples, whom 
Von Mier had left there to represent him, was told by 
San Gallo to inform General Hiller, who commanded the 
Austrian armies in the north, that the advance of the 
Neapolitans into central Italy must not be considered as a 
hostile movement against Austria. 

The news of the movement was hailed by the Italianists 
in the north as the first step towards a national rising. Atj 
Bologna five battaHons of volunteers were enrolled to join 
the Neapolitans. Carascosa met General Pino at Ferrara, 
and was assured by him that, the day that Murat proclaimed 
the unity of Italy, the Italian regiments in Eugene's service 
would come over to his flag. 

But he was stiU halting between two ways. Fouche was 
with him at Naples, from i to 19 December, and discussed 
very frankly with him the possibilities that would be 
opened out either by fidelity to the Empire or by throwing 
in his lot mth the Allies. He was a master of the art of 
fishing in troubled waters, and it would seem that the 



MURAT ABANDONS FALLING EMPIRE 267 

practical conclusion to which he tried to lead his pupil 
was that, with dexterous management, he might keep 
his army in hand as a trump card to be played at the critical 
moment, in order to secure a good bargain for himself with 
whichever side proved the victor. 

Murat was already working for this end. He was not 
anxious to fight against his old comrades. His idea ap- 
parently was that he could confine the operations of his 
army to a demonstration about Bologna, and satisfy his 
projected agreement with the Austrians by occupying as 
much territory as possible without actual fighting, leaving 
it to their generals to meet Eugene. He hoped that thus, 
before the end of the campaign, which was expected to come 
soon, he would hold Italy from Calabria to the south bank 
of the Po, and would have called forth such a manifestation 
of Italian feeling in his own favour that, when the map of 
Europe was rearranged, he would be allowed to retain not 
only Naples but part of central Italy. 

It was no doubt part of the result of his talks with Fouche 
that when, a httle later, he wrote to Paris that it would be 
a good plan to divide Italy into two kingdoms, north and 
south, of which he would hold the latter, Fouche sent a 
similar proposal from Rome to the Emperor. 

The Austrians saw that Murat was hesitating, and were 
not satisfied with a mere march of his troops into central 
Italy, to be followed by a benevolent neutrality during their 
further operations against Eugene. In the beginning of 
November Hiller had driven the Viceroy from the line of 
the Brenta, and Eugene had withdrawn his headquarters 
to Verona. At the same time another Austrian corps, 
under Nugent, had been transported across the Adriatic 
from Trieste, and had landed at the mouth of the Po to 
occupy Ferrara and Bologna. If Murat meant to act it 
was time for his troops to join Nugent. 

Mettemich sent to Naples General Von Neipperg, the 
Austrian soldier diplomatist, who was afterwards the 
second husband of Maria Louisa, when she was Grand 
Duchess of Parma. Neipperg informed the King of Naples 



268 JOACHIM MURAT 

that if he persisted in standing neutral the negotiations 
with Austria must come to an end ; but on the contrary, 
if he would act at once with the Coalition, Mettemich was 
ready to guarantee him his crown and a moderate addition 
of territory in central Italy. He would also secure the 
consent of England to this arrangement. This last was an 
important point, for the negotiations with England had 
hung fire. Castlereagh and the majority of the Cabinet 
in London were ready to grant anything that Mettemich 
thought necessary, but Bentinck, as the fast friend of the 
Neapohtan Bourbons, was moving every influence he could 
command to prevent the concession being made, and was 
urging that Naples should be restored to its old masters, 
and Murat forced to content himself with some minor 
compensation, such as the principality of the Ionian 
Islands. 

Neipperg had arrived at Naples at the end of December. 
When he found Murat stiU hesitating he told him that 
further delays would mean the withdrawal of Mettemich's 
offer. Austria would then regard him as an enemj^ and 
there would be an end of his kingdom. In the first days of 
January, 1814, Von Mier returned from Vienna to Naples 
and advised Murat and Caroline to sign the treaty of which 
he brought a draft from his master. The allied armies had 
entered France, the last stage of the struggle with Napoleon 
had begun, and even a day's delay in accepting the offer 
of Mettemich might make Murat's alliance not worth 
bargaining for. 

On II January San Gallo, on behalf of Murat, and 
Von Mier, as the plenipotentiary of the Emperor Francis, 
signed the Treaty of Naples. By this treaty it is agreed 
that Murat shall place at the disposal of the Allies an 
army corps of 30,000 men, and he is not to make peace 
with France except with the consent of Austria. The 
Austrian Emperor guarantees to Murat the kingdom of 
Naples, and agrees that if he takes the field \\ith his army 
he shall command also the Austrian troops acting with it. 
In his absence an Austrian general is to command the united 



TREATY WITH AUSTRIA 269 

forces. Secret articles annexed to the treaty set forth 
that Murat renounces all claims to Sicily, and that the 
Austrian Emperor will use his good offices to secure from 
the ' King of Sicily ' a similar renunciation of all claims to 
Naples, and will also assist in a friendly arrangement 
between Murat and the British Government, and secure 
for him a cession of further territory in central Italy at the 
peace. 

Bentinck no sooner heard of the signature of the treaty 
than he urged his Government to oppose its ratification. 
Italy under Murat's influence would be, he wrote, a con- 
tinual menace to the peace of the world, and with the 
thorough-going hatred of Napoleon and all his lieutenants 
that characterized patriotic Britons in that time of stress 
and strife, he added that ' it was lamentable to see such 
advantages given to a man whose whole Hfe had been a 
crime, who had been the active accomplice of Bonaparte 
for years, and who now deserted his benefactor through his 
own ambition and under the pressure of necessity.' But 
a few days later he received a note from Castlereagh directing 
him to arrange at once for a suspension of hostilities between 
Sicily and Naples, reserving the rights of the royal family 
(the Bourbons) for future discussion. 

The Italian generals in the north, Pino, Pepe, and the 
rest who shared their hopes that Murat would put himself 
at the head of a national movement, were disappointed at 
the slow progress of events ending in their hoped-for 
champion becoming a subordinate agent of Austria. The 
first effect of Murat's defection on the northern campaign 
was that Eugene abandoned the Hne of the Adige and 
retired to the Mincio. He had hoped to the last that the 
NeapoHtans would make a diversion in his favour on the 
enemy's flank. Now he knew that Murat's generals were 
marching to join Nugent at Bologna as his allies. MioUis, 
with the small French garrison at Rome, was blockaded in 
the castle of Sant' Angelo. Barbou, who commanded at 
Ancona, held out in the citadel tiU 15 February, when he 
was forced by famine to surrender to the Neapolitans. 



270 JOACHIM MURAT 

Murat thus became for the moment master of central 
Italy. 

But he gave no active co-operation to the Austrian armies 
in the field. He was so doubtful about his position that he 
meant to remain at Naples till the treaty, signed by Von 
Mier, had been ratified by the Austrian Emperor and 
accepted by other members of the Coalition. It was 
Caroline who overcame his hesitation and hurried him 
away to Bologna. As regent in his absence she showed 
no lack of energy in the execution of the still unratified 
treaty. She seized the principalities of Benevento and 
Ponte Corvo, put an embargo on French shipping, and 
expelled all French officials from the kingdom. Von Mier 
reported that her conduct was ' admirable.' 

Her husband, who had now his headquarters at Bologna, 
was seriously alarmed at the delay in the ratification of the 
treaty, and still more when he was informed that, as the 
result of English opposition, it might be necessary to leave 
the decision as to his kingdom to the Congress that would 
assemble after the close of the war to rearrange the map of 
Europe. Another disquieting fact was the proclamation 
to the Italian people, issued by the Austrian commander in 
the north, in which it was announced that the French 
usurpers were to be expelled from the peninsula and the 
former dynasties restored. Murat wrote pressing letters 
to the Austrian Emperor. But this was not all. He 
entered into correspondence with his old rival Eugene, 
and sent some strangely worded letters to Napoleon himself. 
Possibly the successes won by the Emperor in the opening 
stages of the campaign of 1814 made him wonder if he had 
wrongly judged the probable result of the war. He was 
preparing to change sides again in case Austria played him 
false. 

During February frequent communications had passed 
between the headquarters of Murat and Eugene. In the 
last week of that month Murat, who had just written to 
the Emperor Francis protesting his devotion to the allied 
cause and begging for a prompt ratification of the treaty, 



TREATY WITH AUSTRIA 271 

sent to Eugene a proposal for a joint action of the French 
army and the NeapoHtans, with the understanding that, 
if the Austrians could be driven out, the peninsula was to 
be divided between the two leaders. Eugene sent the letter 
on to Napoleon on i March, with a covering letter, in which 
he spoke of the proposal as a piece of madness. But he was 
at the same time able to tell the Emperor that Murat under- 
took not to act against the French army till he had a reply 
to his communication. On the same day Murat wrote a 
strange letter to Napoleon : — 

' Sire. Your Majesty is in danger. France is menaced even 
in its capital, and I cannot die for you, and your Majesty's 
most affectionate friend is in appearance your enemy. Sire, 
say only one word, and I am ready to sacrifice my family, my 
subjects. I shall ruin myself, but I will have served you and 
proved that I have always been your best friend. I ask 
nothing else for the moment, only let the Viceroy inform you 
what has been my conduct. The tears that fill my eyes pre- 
vent me from saying more. I am here alone in the midst 
of strangers. I must hide even my tears from them. This 
letter makes you. Sire, the master of my fate. My life is in 
your hands. It is as though I had sworn to die for you. If 
you could see me and know what I have suffered during these 
two months, you would pity me. Love me always. Never 
was I more worthy of your affection. Your friend till death, 

' Joachim Napoleon ' 

This almost suggests that, under the strain of anxiety, 
its writer's mind was breaking down. Next day, 2 March, 
he found himself face to face with a French hne of battle, 
when Grenier's division attacked the Neapolitan and 
Austrian outpost hne before Parma. The action had hardly 
begun when Murat ordered the Neapolitans to retire, and 
their withdrawal forced the Austrians also to give way. 
Grenier took some sixty of Murat's men prisoners in the 
pursuit, but next day Eugene sent them back to his lines. 
With the liberated prisoners the Viceroy sent Murat a 
letter urging him to lose no time in declaring for France. 
No doubt he hoped to force his hand by compromising him 
with his Austrian allies. 



272 JOACHIM MURAT 

Napoleon had already asked his brother Joseph to 
use his intluonco with Miirat to win him back before he 
had actually fought a battle against his old comrades, 
and Faipoult, formerly Joseph's minister of linance at 
Naples, was on his way to Italy, as his envoy to Murat. 
On 12 March, Napoleon received Murat 's letter of i IMarch, 
and the proposals for the partition of Italy forwarded by 
Eugene. He MTote to the Viceroy : — 

' I send you a copy of a very extraordinary letter that I 
have had from the Kiug of Naples. Whilst they are assassinat- 
ing me — me and France — such sentiments are inconceivable. 
I have also received the letter you wrote me uith the project 
for a treaty sent to you by the king. You regard this idea 
as a folly. Nevertheless send an agent to this extraordinary 
traitor and make a treaty M'ith him /;; your oxen name. Don't 
touch Piodniont and Naples, but divide the rest of Itaty into 
two kingdoms. Let the treaty be a secret till the Austrians 
are turned out. but let the king, within twenty-four hours 
after sigiiing it. declare himself and fall upon the Austrians. 
You Ciin do what you like on these lines. In the jiresent situa- 
tion nothing should be spared to unite the efforts of the 
NeapoHtans to our o\vn. Later on we can do as we please, 
for after such ingratitude, and in such circumstances, nothing 
is binding.' 

In other words, Eugene was to fool Murat to the top 
of his bent, try to induce him to turn suddenly upon his 
new allies, and this on the strength of a secret treaty 
which the Emperor had not signed, and held himself free J 
to disavow. But before this intrigue was read}' for action,! 
and before Faipoult had reached Murat 's headquarters,] 
there came a letter from the Emperor Francis, dated from] 
his headquarters at Troj'es in France, promising that the] 
Treaty of Naples should be ratified, mth some slight modi-l 
fications, pledging his word for the security of Blurat's] 
throne, and promising to obtain the support of the other! 
allied sovereigns for his claim to Naples. Russia andj 
Prussia had already agreed to it. Murat suddenly threw] 
over all his ideas of an agreement ^^ith Eugene. He wrote 




JOAflllAI MUKA'/, KINO OK NAI'l-KS 

IKOM A I, n IKK, KAMI liV SCIIUIJl'-KI' 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY 273 

to Mettcmich that Austria could ncjw count upon him 
to co-operate in restoring a lasting peace to Europe, for 
he was ' the irreconcilable, enemy of Napoleon's system 
of universal domination, which had cost France so much 
blood and treasure, and brought so many awful calamities 
on Europe.' 

Whether he sent any warning of his change of plans 
to Eugene, we do not know. If he did, the warning came 
too late, for, on 6 March, Murat broke the informal truce 
by suddenly attacking, with 10,000 Austrians and Nea- 
politans, the town of Rubiera, held by only 3000 men of 
the army of Italy, under General Severoli. Severoli was 
wounded and handed the command over to General Ram- 
bourg, who fell back to Reggio Emilia, where he made 
such a vigorous stand that Murat agreed to let him with- 
draw unmolested and join the main body under Grenier. 
Eugene had not yet heard of this fighting when on the 
7th he wrote to Murat, proposing that a line should be 
marked out across which neither should advance without 
giving four days' notice. Next day, having received 
reports of the actions at Rubiera and Reggio, he informed 
Murat that for the present he could hold no further com- 
munication with him. 

Now that he seemed to have chosen a definite course, 
a new incident revived Murat's anxieties. On 9 March 
Bentinck landed at Leghorn with an Anglo-Sicilian force, 
proclaimed that he had come to restore the Grand Duke 
of Tuscany, and demanded that the Neapolitans should 
withdraw from all the territory of the old duchy. It 
was only the intervention of the Austrian general. Belle- 
garde, that averted an actual conflict between Murat's 
army and these new allies of Austria. Bentinck's repeated 
assertion that nothing was really settled about Naples, 
and that his Government would maintain all the rights 
of the Bourbons, made Murat fear that after all he was 
not secure for the future. The result was that he reopened 
communications with Eugene. The secret truce was re- 
newed. On various pretexts, messages passed between 
s 



374 



JOACllIlM IMl'U'Ar 



\\\c NtM|>»'lil.m A\u\ llu> I'lrihli ht\ul«iu.u(ri?.. l''ui;('Mir 
iul\»iiur(l IMm.d oi l'aiiH>iilt's mission, anil also lot liiui 
Uiu>\v III. (I lie was n«ail\' lo anan^r tho proposed hvalv 
lor tlu- pailition i>l llaU'. (n"tuM'al /lU'ihi o\\ Ihc pail 
of l'^\iKi^ut>, ami (iruerul C'uniscusu on thai *>l Mmat. nu-t 
to (lisiMiss details (>!' Ihi;. t\f\v stH-tvt t>ai(;ani. Imt Mmal. 
Ihioni'.h his rnvov. taicvl i l.uuc. I hat vlrl.iyi'd an a^n'f- 
iiuni I'aipvMilt, uiuKi an as;anntd uanio, l*eftclu*d Miuat's 
lirad.inaitris. and H'poilrd that llu> kiiig was inrlinnl 
lo hrrak with Anstria, I ookinj^ loi a pn'tt>xt lor smh 
a icxoll, IMuial Uaiuvl it in tlu- tart llial, nivlcad «>l sprak- 
in{< oi the nidt'prndrnrr ol Italw the Alius in IhtMr pro- 
rlainatioiis spt)ko only *'t a^lotiu;; the (Ad dynasties. 
Hnt his iuucticm was by this hmr m.ikini' his A\istrian 
rn\]vloyei>» discontonted. ' It the km;-, will nol i\o n^ 
any sorvioo. lu* will dii\r ns mto l.ikiut; np the in 
trMVStS of Siv'il>.' wiotr !\hlttinhh l(> \'on IMitM'. \'*>n 
MitT was tryu\i', to put an end io .1 vhllirnlt sitnation 
by ]Hns\iadinj; Mniat lo i;i\t> tlu< romin.uid of his 
tro(>ps io Ww .Xushian. ln>lh\!',.iuK'. .lud hnnsrlt ii'tnru to 
Naphs. 

On I Apid. Tope Pnis \'ll am\cd at Holo!;na. Tho 
Anstrians spoke* oi his rails' i\'tnrn to Uiuiu* and Iht* w 
constitution v>t the Tap.d Slatts. This wi>nKl br an 
obst.uU" to Mntal's hopo ot iiurtMSod ttMiitoiy m eiMilral 
Italw l>\' this linu\ liowc^vtM'. iu*ws had aniNovl t>t tho 
allied adwiiur on Tans, and Mm. it haslriuHl to assmo 
A'on l\li(M' and lH'llo{;aido that lu> would co-operate aetivi^ly 
with .m Anstriiin ailvanet* ai;ainst luig<Mu\ Then eame 
the (ulmjjs that tlu> .Mlits hail entennl Taris on 31 ^huvh, 
.md th.it .ill hopr ol imlluM resistance in Fraiui> was at 
an iMid, \\\v lesnlt w.is Ihr eonventiou. between laifi^noi 
.md the .Vnstri.ms, Ih.it put an end also to the war in] 
noi thrin It.ilw 

IMmal had disappointt\l cvtMyeMU* th<* Italians, beeansej 
he h.ul iloiu* not hills.; lor the eherisluHl dre.mi ot an inde 
pendent It.ily. and soni;ht onl\' his in\n interests; th< 
AustriiUis. because the\' d(\l.ued he h.ul onl\' hanipcriHl" 



IWV. (A'Ml'MCN li: f I Ai.y 



'/y; 



O/j -/. 'y].i/ ))< ;'lii;;i''l I', ,'.'.,|,1' ,, .,if/)'l flj' .1 ' ' |.w/;.i h'/D'v 

'-f Hi' j<i '/j>l' . r,iii )i' 7/:r, 'Ji ,,i j/j/'/in I ' 'I ..! iJc ^)/.')'//iou^ 
7/.) , 7':/'/ u,ti/.i')iy. ultiini \\t'. lufiJ/';, 



276 JOACHIM MURAT 



CHAPTER XVII 

MURAT RAISES THE STANDARD AGAINST AUSTRIA- 
DEFEAT AND DISASTER — MURAT A FUGITIVE 
DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS— THE TRAGEDY 
OF PIZZO 

1814-1815 

EVEN before the Congress of Vienna set its official 
seal on the new state of things, the old Italy, 
f of the days before the Revolution, was partly 
reconstituted. The Republics of Genoa and Venice had 
disappeared, but the King of Sardinia was back at Turin ; 
the grand duke at Florence ; and an Austrian commandant 
at ]\Iikm. The Pope had been brought back to Rome in 
triimiph. But the Bourbons were still in Sicily, and 
Murat was still at Naples, with a dixasion of his troops 
temporarily holding Ancona. 

He rehed on the pledged word of the Emperor Francis 
to maintain his throne, even though he well knew that 
he had not fuUilled his onmi part of the compact. England 
he knew was hostile to him. Anxious to obtain what- 
ever support he could, he approached Pius MI and offered 
to hand back at once to him Ancona and the Marches, 
and recognize the old feudal rights of the Holy See over 
the Neapolitan kingdom, if the Pope would cro^^Tl him, 
and so give a new sanction to his claims. But Pius \1I 
refused to intervene in the question. 

The loyalty of the Emperor Francis to his engagements 
finally obtained for him the recognition of his right to 
Naples. He received no increase of territory and had 
to evacuate Ancona. But he was content to be in pos- 



RAISES STANDARD AGAINST AUSTRIA 277 

session of his kingdom again, though he felt that he held 
it by a doubtful tenure. The Bourbons of Sicily had 
not given up the hope of yet expelling him from Naples, 
and organized a political brigandage in Calabria, by send- 
ing across the Straits of Messina disbanded soldiers of 
their Neapolitan regiments, with arms in their hands. 
At the same time, there were continual disputes and grow- 
ing friction over the regulation of trade between Naples 
and Sicily. The Austrian politicians regarded Murat as 
a dangerous element in the Italian situation, and again 
and again, in the conference at Vienna, it was suggested 
that it would be better for the peace of Europe if the old 
kingdom of the Two Sicilies were restored under its former 
rulers, and this French adventurer persuaded to accept 
some minor principality elsewhere. 

Murat felt that sooner or later he would have to defend 
his throne. During the remaining months of 1814 he 
devoted all his energies to increasing his army, and re- 
opened communications with the Italian leaders through- 
out the peninsula. They were now dreaming that perhaps 
Napoleon himself would make his island Empire of Elba 
the starting-point of a movement for unity and independ- 
ence. For them the Corsican was still an Italian. Murat 
cherished the hope that, if he could raise the standard of 
the new movement, Italy would fly to arms, and, not- 
withstanding his treason, his old chief would, at the critical 
moment, bring to his aid the magic of his name and the 
power of his genius. He could not imagine Napoleon 
looking on quietly from Elba while the tricolour was 
flying in triumph from the Alps to the southern sea. 

At the beginning of 1815 he flattered himself that he 
had again won the confidence of the ' patriots ' in central 
and northern Italy. He counted especially on the Italian 
generals of the various armies in the peninsula who had 
fought under Napoleon or under his own command. He 
expected that, when the critical moment came, they would 
bring over to his standard considerable bodies of their 
troops. But his plans were not yet complete, nor had 



278 JOACHIM MURAT 

anything occurred to alarm him as to the immediate 
security of his throne, when, in the first week of March, the 
starthng news arrived that Napoleon had escaped from Elba 
and landed in France, and was boldly marching on Paris. 

While the result of the daring enterprise was still doubtful, 
Murat was prudently reserved. He informed the British 
consul at Naples that he had written to the British Govern- 
ment to assure them that he would not in any way change 
his policy of peace. He sent the same message to Palermo. 
But he had alread}^ tried to establish a network of secret 
relations in Sicil}^ and he strangely suggested that if any 
of the Neapolitan regiments in the pay of the Bourbons 
would prefer to serve on the mainland, perhaps the Sicilian 
and British authorities might be pei-suaded to transfer 
them to his army — an absurdly impossible proposal at 
such a time. 

But when the news of Napoleon's \dctorious advance 
reached Naples, he sent one of his aides-de-camp to offer 
his services to Napoleon, and, without waiting for the 
Emperor's reply, without the least knowledge of what 
his views and plans were, he embarked in a wild attempt 
to conquer all Ital3^ 

If Napoleon, starting with a few hundred grenadiers, 
was marching in triumph from the I\Iediterranean shore 
to the Tuileries, why could not he with 40,000 men set 
Italy in a flame of patriotic enthusiasm, and march from 
Naples to Milan, gathering strength as he advanced, and 
fmally, at the head of Italy in arms, drive the Austrians 
over the Alps ? His realm would be no longer a vassal 
kingdom of Naples, but the * Kingdom of Italy ' in the 
widest sense of the word, and henceforth he would deal 
with Napoleon as an equal. His \dctories, his offer of 
the support of millions of Italians, would wipe away the 
memory of 18 14. 

These were the dreams with which, on 15 March, 1815, 
he declared war against Austria, and, proclaiming himself 
the liberator of Italy, called upon all her people to rally 
to the standard of imity and independence. 



RAISES STANDARD AGAINST AUSTRIA 279 

He thought he was helping Napoleon. He could not 
have done him a worse service. At the outset of his adven- 
ture the Emperor had cherished the hope that he might 
be able to persuade the Powers to consider the expulsion 
of the Bourbons from France as a purely internal question, 
and, failing this, that he might at least prevent all Europe 
from uniting against him in a new coalition. He knew 
that there were serious dissensions in the Vienna Congress, 
that the quarrels of the Allies had once, at least, threatened 
an open rupture among them. Above all he trusted that, 
through the influence of his wife and her father, the Emperor 
Francis, Austria might be held back. He declared that 
the restored Empire would mean peace ; that he no longer 
dreamed of conquests ; that he would respect the con- 
ditions of the Treaty of Paris. From Lyons, on 10 March, 
he had written to his brother Joseph, then in Switzer- 
land, telling him to assure the Russian and Austrian ministers, 
accredited to the Swiss Government, that he had no idea 
of winning back the provinces taken from France by the 
treaties of 1814, and that he intended to devote himself 
entirely to the peaceful development of the country. He 
wrote in the same sense to Maria Louisa, asking her to 
secure her father's influence on his behalf. He wrote 
also to Lucien at Rome, telling him to influence diplomatic 
opinion there in his favour and assure the Pope that he 
had no idea of disturbing Italy. 

Then came Murat's sudden proclamation of war 
against Austria, his summons to Italy to rise against the 
foreigner. It seemed to be a practical demonstration that 
the reappearance of Napoleon in France was the signal for 
rekindling the flame of war in Europe. The news shattered 
Napoleon's hopes of peace with the Allies. It is true that 
they had already determined to act in concert against him, 
but Murat's conduct seemed to be their justification. After 
the complete failure of his rash enterprise Murat pretended 
that he had been encouraged by Napoleon to raise Italy 
against the Austrians. The only possible pretext for this 
plea was a letter he received from Joseph, which he might 



28o JOACHIM MURAT 

have supposed to be inspired by the Emperor. But it could 
not have determined his course of action, for he did not 
receive it until his armies were already on the march north- 
ward.i 

He once more entrusted the regency to Caroline and 
left 10,000 men in the garrisons of the kingdom. The 
forces available for the field operations amounted to 
40,000 men with 56 guns. But the rapid expansion of 
his army had not improved its quality. The ranks were 
full of half-drilled recruits, and the officers included many 
who had had no long training, no useful experience of war. 
He left Naples on 17 March and began his adventurous 
march, dividing his army into two columns. As in 1814 
the first was to advance by Rome into Tuscany, the second 
by Ancona towards Bologna. 

Pius Vn, refusing to be reassured by Murat's friendly 
messages, fled from Rome to Genoa on the approach of the 
Neapolitans. At first Murat met with no opposition, but, 
though he was received with acclamations, few recruits 
joined him, and there was no sign of a great popular move- 
ment in his favour. The people were more alarmed at the 
renewed outbreak of war than enthusiastic for Italianist 
ideals. 

Until the beginning of April there were only some in- 
significant skirmishes. The Austrian detachments retired 
before the Neapolitan advance, and Murat reunited his two 

1 ' It was a letter dated 16 March, 1815, and written by Joseph on the 
eve of his departure from Prangins for France. Like Joseph's former 
letter to Napoleon at Fontainebleau urging him to resistance in 1814, 
when he had already abdicated and all was over for the time, Joseph's 
letter to Murat is an incomprehensible document, for it was written in 
direct opposition to Napoleon's appeal to him to do all he could to 
persuade the Powers that the restored Empire meant peace, not war ; and 
it was more especially opposed to Napoleon's policy of trying to win the 
friendship, or at least the neutrality, of Austria. One can only suppose 
that on this, as on the other occasion, Joseph had for the moment lost 
his head. He called on Murat to "support by his armies and his policy 
the generous movement of the French people, and to give pacific 
assurances to Austria, at the same time marching forward to the Alps 
but not passing them." But what use were " pacific assurances " if he was 
to march his armies into provinces held by the Austrian troops, and 
proclaim the liberation of Italy from the control of the Viennese Govern- 
ment ? ' {Napoleon's Brothers, pp. 423-24). 



RAISES STANDARD AGAINST AUSTRIA 281 

columns at Bologna. Jerome Bonaparte, on his way 
from Trieste to join the Emperor in France, was beside him 
as he rode in triumph into the city amid the clang of bells 
and the cheers of the people. 

Here he received disquieting news from Caroline. Ben- 
tinck was preparing an Anglo-SiciUan expedition against 
Naples, and the British cruisers were threatening the 
coasts of the kingdom. To a note informing Bentinck that 
the Government of Naples wished to maintain peace with 
England, the British agent had bluntly replied that his 
Government intended to co-operate with Austria in dethron- 
ing Murat. But he had enough to occupy him at Bologna. 
The Austrian generals, Neipperg and Bianchi, were approach- 
ing ; Neipperg with 16,000 men from the northward through 
the Romagna, Bianchi with 30,000 from the north-west- 
ward. 

Murat had no tactical imagination except on the battle- 
field. As he had once said, he made his plans in sight of the 
enemy. If he had had a fragment of Napoleon's genius, or 
even the habit of applying to a fairly simple situation the 
elementary maxims of the art of war, he could easily have 
interposed between the two smaU Austrian armies and 
beaten them in detail. Possibly he did not trust his half- 
trained troops sufficiently to make the attempt. Perhaps 
he was waiting for the expected national rising that never 
came. The first serious engagement took place at Carpi, 
in the Modenese territory. Bianchi drove the Neapolitans 
out of the town, but they made a good stand on the banks 
of the Panaro. Murat thought at first that he was victorious, 
but, on the forcing of the line at the bridge of Occhobiello, 
the defence collapsed. There was a general retreat on 
Bologna and the two Austrian corps joined hands. 

At first there was an idea of standing on the defensive 
about Bologna. But reinforcements were known to be on 
the march to join the enemy, there were no signs of the 
hoped-for insurrectionary movement in the north, and 
Murat reluctantly decided to retreat towards his kingdom. 
A successful rearguard action against Neipperg, on the banks 



282 JOACHIM MURAT 

of the Ronco, revived his hopes for a moment. Then came 
the surprise of General Napohtani's brigade at Casenatico, 
and a last glimmer of success in the rearguard action of 
Macerata as Murat drew off by the coast road through the 
March of Ancona. After this there came a succession of 
defeats, ending in the disastrous battle of Tolentino on 3 May. 

The position of the Neapolitan army was now hopeless, 
Murat made a hurried retirement across the frontiers of his 
kingdom, fighting, almost daily, rearguard actions and seeing 
his forces dwindling rapidly by continual desertions. At 
Capua he had hardly twelve thousand men left, and these 
were wearied, dispirited and demoraUzed. News reached 
him that an Anglo-Sicilian army was preparing to cross the 
Straits and march on Naples from the southward. It was 
impossible to continue the struggle. 

He handed over the command to General Carascosa, told 
his Minister of Foreign Affairs, San GaUo, to enter into 
negotiations for an armistice, and himself rode on to Naples 
with a few companions. He entered his capital for the last 
time at five in the afternoon of 18 May, escorted by four 
Polish lancers. 

In the streets the people cheered him as if he were a 
victor. But at the palace Caroline, who had tried to 
dissuade him from his desperate venture, received him 
with chilling coldness in this hour of failure. ' Madame,' 
he said, in bitter disappointment, ' do not be surprised at 
seeing me alive. I have done all I could to meet death.' 
A number of nobles and officers came to greet him, and were 
astonished at the calmness that he showed in the midst of 
disaster. 

Next morning there was disappointing news from San 
GaUo. Bianchi, the Austrian commander, had refused to 
hear of armistice or negotiations. He declared that he was 
now master of the kingdom of Naples, and would not recog- 
nize King Joachim. All that he would agree to would be a 
military convention with General Carascosa, from the 
advantages of which ' Marshal Murat ' must be excluded. 

An English squadron lay in sight of Naples, and Caroline 



DEFEAT AND DISASTER 283 

had averted a threatened bombardment of the capital only 
by surrendering the few armed vessels that flew the Nea- 
politan flag. Gaeta still held out. Murat announced his 
intention of going there and sharing the fate of its garrison. 
But would Gaeta venture to resist the Austrians ? and even 
if it did, a capitulation must come sooner or later. His 
friends persuaded him that his best course would be to try 
to reach France. 

On 19 May he spent his last day, in his palace at Naples, 
preparing for his flight. It could not be long delayed, for 
there were already signs of a revolutionary movement 
among the fickle people, and rumours of a hostile landing 
from the British squadron. It was decided that, to prevent 
his departure being at once discovered, Caroline should 
for the present remain at Naples, and rejoin him later in 
France. It was thought that she could always count on a 
safe conduct and free passage even from the Allies. 

After nightfall, with his diamonds and some 300,000 
francs in banknotes, and some gold sewn into his 
clothes and belt, he dressed in civilian costume and rode 
out of Naples. He was accompanied and immediately 
followed by his two nephews, the Bonnafous, his aide-de- 
camp. Colonel de Beauffremont, the Polish colonel, Mal- 
chewsky, the Duke di Roccaromana, the Marchese Giulano, 
his secretary, De Coussy, and his valet, Leblanc. At the 
coast village of Miniscola the fugitives hired and embarked 
in two fishing-boats and put to sea in the darkness. 

One of the boats was captured by an English cruiser, 
with half the party, but Murat escaped in the other to Ischia. 
Before sunrise he had landed on the island and found a 
hiding-place in the house of a French merchant who Hved 
there. 

Next morning, by lucky chance, he learned that a small 
coasting craft, the Santa Caterina, had come into the port, 
and that General Manhes, with his wife and some friends, was 
in hiding on board of her. He joined them with his party, 
and, after more than one narrow escape of capture, the 
Santa Caterina anchored on 25 May in the port of Cannes. 



284 JOACHIM MURAT 

From Cannes, where for the present he observed a strict 
incognito, Murat wrote to Fouche to know if the Emperor 
would receive him, and told him he was anxious only to 
offer his sword to France. Napoleon was angry at his 
treason of 1814 and his recent disastrous escapade. He 
told Fouche to inform him that for the present he did not 
wish to see him and had no intention of employing him 
with his army. Fouche, in sending this reply, advised 
Murat to be patient, and hope for better things when the 
Emperor had won new successes and felt his throne secure. 

Cannes was not then the cosmopolitan city of pleasure 
of to-day. There was only the old town, with its harbour 
crowded with the masts and long lateen yards of coasting 
craft, and the fort, held by a garrison of veterans, some of 
whom must have recognized the restless man, with wrinkles 
in his face and grey hairs among the black, who walked on 
the jetty or smoked over the newspapers in a second-rate 
cafe. He was spending an anxious time during these first 
three weeks of June, almost alone, and without any news 
of his wife and children or of what was happening at Naples. 
How he must have chafed at his enforced idleness when the 
newspapers told that the Emperor had crossed the northern 
frontier. Men who had been his subordinates in earlier 
campaigns were now marshals of France, in command of 
veterans he had once led to victory. One Sunday evening 
— it was 18 June — Cannes was wild with excitement. 
News had come that the Emperor had proved himself once 
more the man of Marengo and Austerlitz and routed the 
Prussians and the English. It was the news of Ligny. 
He would soon be in Brussels. But that same night the 
routed army of France was streaming in confused flight across 
the frontier, and the Emperor was himself a fugitive. It 
was the evening of Waterloo. 

Would things have been different if Murat had been there 
to lead the fierce onset on the ' rocky squares ' ? Probably 
it would have made little difference. Berthier's absence 
was a heavier loss to Napoleon than that of his great cavalry 
leader. 



A FUGITIVE 285 

Murat's position was now one of serious peril. The 
' White Terror ' had broken out in France. Partisans of 
Napoleon were being hunted down and arrested. Some, 
like Brune at Avignon, were murdered by Royalist mobs. 
Fearing that he was known to too many at Cannes to be 
safe there, Murat went away to Plaisance, near Toulon, 
where he was joined by De Beauffremont and three of his 
Neapolitan officers. Thence, through an old employe of 
his Government, Macirone, who had gone to Paris, he asked 
the new Government to protect him till his fate was decided 
by the allied sovereigns. At the same time Macirone was 
to communicate with their representatives in his master's 
interest. 

While waiting for a reply from Macirone he became 
alarmed about his safety, and arranged, through Colonel 
Bonnafous and the Duke di Roccaromana, to get away 
from Toulon on board a Swedish ship. Nearly all that 
was left of his fortune, some 200,000 francs, was sent on 
board, but at the last moment he missed his friends at 
the appointed rendezvous, and the ship sailed without 
him. He had still his diamonds and a few hundred francs, 
but he was in momentary fear of arrest, and to try to sell 
the jewels might have betrayed his identity. He left 
Toulon and wandered aimlessly for two days and nights 
in the country, along the coast to the eastward. He was 
in such a state of nervous panic that he avoided villages 
and houses, and lived on fruit he gathered furtively on his 
way, and slept at night under the stars in the comer of a 
field. At last he ventured to ask for a meal at a lonely 
farm, and found the proprietor was a veteran soldier of 
the Empire, to whom he revealed himself, and who not 
only promised to hide him, but also helped him to find 
some friends. Three of them were old officers of the 
navy. Captain Oletta and Lieutenants Donnadieu and 
Langlade. The fourth was Blancard, a retired army 
officer who had served in Spain. These new friends 
became devoted to him, and it was decided to take 
refuge in Corsica, where a marshal of the Empire could 



286 JOACHIM MURAT 

hope to be welcomed by Napoleon's countrymen. Some 
of the diamonds were sold, a small coasting ship was 
hired, and, on the night between the twenty-second and 
twenty-third of August, the party embarked and put to 
sea. 

They encountered a fierce gale, and were in danger of 
foundering when they met the post-packet plying between 
Toulon and Bastia, and on her way to the latter port. 
Murat and his friends ran the risk of asking to be taken 
on board, and the captain of the packet agreed to receive 
them without suspecting who the chief of the party was. 
On board the packet Murat found a certain Galvani who 
had been in his service at Naples. Bastia was reached 
on the 25th, and Murat, still keeping his incognito, put up 
at a small inn. 

The new arrivals were soon suspected. The three naval 
officers were arrested, and Murat, escaping with difficulty 
from the town, found a new hiding-place at the village of 
Vescovato, where he was protected by a retired Corsican 
officer. General Franceschetti. The general's father-in- 
law, Ceccaldi, the maire of Vescovato, was a Royalist, but 
he assured Murat he would not betray or molest him. 
But a report reached Bastia of his presence there, and 
ten gendarmes were sent to arrest him. On their arrival 
the tocsin was rung, the villagers assembled, many of them 
with guns, all with long knives in their hands, and the 
gendarmes made a hurried retreat. After this, the house 
of the general was guarded day and night by the people. 
Murat thus realized that he could find supporters in Corsica, 
and began to dream of another enterprise to be carried 
out with their aid. 

He had heard that a handful of French troops, left in 
Elba when Napoleon embarked for France, still kept 
the Imperial flag flying. He thought of crossing over 
to the island with a levy of Corsicans, and making it the 
base of operations for a raid on his old kingdom, where 
he flattered himself the people would welcome him. But 
an envoy sent to Elba brought back news that the 



A FUGITIVE 287 

French garrison had just capitulated. Another Corsican 
went to Naples and saw General Filangeri, who assured 
him that any enterprise against the new Government was 
doomed to fail, and begged the messenger to return 
and persuade Murat not to engage in such a desperate 
attempt. 

When his envoy returned to Corsica on 12 October, 
Murat was no longer in the island. After the riot at 
Vescovato he had been left in peace for some weeks. Of 
the officers in command in the island, some were unwill- 
ing to molest him. Others feared that an attempt to arrest 
him would provoke a dangerous insurrection. Murat's 
mind had become fixed upon the idea that, if he could 
land in Calabria, even with a handful of men, he could 
raise an insurrection against the Bourbons and regain 
his kingdom, perhaps revolutionize all Italy. Frances- 
chetti and other friends, who had joined him at Vescovato, 
tried to dissuade him from this piece of rashness, but at 
the same time declared that if he persisted they would ac- 
company him. There is no doubt that there was a personal 
magic in the man that made it easy for him to attach 
others to his cause, even in such desperate circumstances. 
In the third week of September he enrolled a number 
of partisans at Vescovato, and marched on Ajaccio at 
their head. In all the villages on the way he was wel- 
comed enthusiastically, and armed recruits joined him at 
every halt. He had 400 men with him when he occupied 
Ajaccio. 

There he printed a proclamation to the Neapolitan 
people, and a decree establishing a new Liberal constitu- 
tion. He seized the shipping in the port and prepared 
to embark for Calabria, promising his Corsican followers 
glory and wealth in his reconquered kingdom. While 
he was completing his preparations, Macirone arrived 
from Paris. He had looked for Murat at Vescovato, 
and then came on to find him at Ajaccio. He brought 
with him a safe-conduct for him from the Allies and a 
letter from Mettemich, offering him, on the part of the 



288 JOACHIM MURAT 

Emperor of Austria, a place of residence in his dominions, 
Metternich's note ran thus : — 

' Monsieur Macirone is authorized by these presents to inform 
King Murat (sic) that His Majesty the Emperor of Austria 
will grant him an asylum in his States under the following 
conditions : — 

* I. The King wlU take another title. The Queen, having 
already taken that of the Countess " of Lipona," this title is 
suggested for the King.^ 

' 2. The King wiU be free to choose as his place of residence 
some city in Bohemia, Moravia, or upper Austria. 

' 3. The King will 'pledge his word to his Imperial and Royal 
Majesty that he will not leave the Austrian States without 
his Majesty's express consent, and that he wiU Hve as a private 
individual of rank, in submission to the laws in force in the 
Austrian States.' 

Macirone also brought back the 200,000 francs that had 
been sent on board the Swedish ship on Murat's first attempt 
to escape from Toulon. He was able to inform Murat 
that, after his departure from Naples, Caroline had gone 
on board the English warship Tremendous with her children 
and the Comte de Mosbourg, and was now living at Trieste 
under the name of the Comtesse de Lipona. Murat had 
had no letters from her. He did not know that she had 
taken refuge on board the British ship when Naples was 
on the verge of insurrection, and that she had been con- 
veyed to Trieste against her will, though she protested 
that she wished to rejoin her husband. He thought that 
Caroline had willingly abandoned him and sought safety 
among his enemies. To Manhes, who had rejoined him 
at Ajaccio, he exclaimed, ' I endured everything — the 
loss of my fortune, the loss of my kingdom, and what a 
kingdom ! But to find myself abandoned by the mother 
of my children, who prefers to give herself up to my enemies 
rather than come back to me — no — I cannot stand up 
against such a blow. What a misfortune is mine ! I 
shall never see wife or children again.' 

* ' Lipona ' is an anagram of ' Napoli ' (Naples). 



A FUGITIVE 289 

To the dismay of his friends, he refused to hear of Metter- 
nich's offer. In his agitated frame of mind, he thought 
only of facing any danger at the head of his Corsican 
partisans rather than disappearing into the obscurity of 
some inland town, where he would live under the surveil- 
lance of the Austrian police. 

Some writers on Murat's last tragic enterprise have 
put forward the theory that the Bourbon King of Naples 
lured his enemy to destruction by sending to Ajaccio 
traitorous agents, who invited him to land in Calabria, 
and encouraged him with delusive promises of local support. 
The facts are all the other way. He sent to Corsica a 
trusted agent named Carabelli, whose mission was not only 
to watch and report on Murat's movements, but also to 
do all he could to dissuade him from any attempt to land 
in Italy, and urge him to proceed to Trieste and rejoin 
his family there. 

But he would listen to no arguments against what was 
now his fixed purpose. On the night between the twenty- 
eighth and twenty-ninth of September he embarked his 
expedition, on board of five smaU ships and a felucca, 
in the bay of Ajaccio. In all he took only some 250 
men with him. Next day the Uttle squadron passed 
through the Strait of Bonifacio, and anchored under the 
lee of the desert island of Tavolara. Murat landed and 
reviewed his men, and on re-embarking gave to some 
forty of them uniforms he had had made at Ajaccio. 
The squadron then headed for the Neapolitan coast. 
On 5 October, Vesuvius was in sight, a blue cone among 
the clouds on the horizon. 

Next day the squadron was off Paola in Calabria Citeriore, 
where Murat thought of attempting a landing, but a sudden 
gale drove the ships out to sea, and next morning the felucca 
was missing. On the 7th the town of Lucido was in sight. 
One of the officers. Major Ottaviani, was sent ashore to 
reconnoitre, but did not return. He had been arrested 
by the custom-house officers. The same day two of the 
ships deserted the squadron. Murat had lost nearly half 



290 JOACHIM MURAT 

his small party already. When he proposed to land at 
Amantea, he found that his officers had lost heart. It 
would be useless, they said, to attempt anything with such 
a handful of men. Murat then spoke of giving up the 
enterprise, and said he would go on to Trieste. 

Then he parted company with the remaining two ships, 
and sailed along the coast alone till he was off Pizzo. There 
Barbara, a Maltese, who was the captain of the ship, told 
him the weather was likely to be bad, and it would be better 
to go into Pizzo and there try to find a larger ship for the 
long voyage to Trieste. He assured Murat that there 
would be no difficulty in making the exchange. 

It would seem that when the ship headed for Pizzo 
Murat had no other idea than to secure there better means 
for continuing his voyage. But before the anchor was let 
go he had changed his mind, and was once more dreaming 
of repeating Napoleon's exploit of the landing from Elba 
and of calling Calabria to arms at the head of the few men 
who were still ready to risk anything for him. 

He put on a colonel's uniform, with a three-cornered hat 
adorned with the Neapolitan cockade surrounded by a 
circle of diamonds. As soon as the ship anchored he 
landed at the head of twenty-six of his Corsicans, having 
told Captain Barbara to get the ship that had brought 
him under way, and be ready to run in and take him off if 
the enterprise miscarried. 

There was no garrison at Pizzo. There were only a few 
customs officers and police, and the old castle was the place 
of residence of a Spaniard named Alcala, the local agent 
of the Duke de Infantado. The duke had large estates in 
Calabria. They had been confiscated by Napoleon's orders 
during King Joachim's reign because their owner refused to 
accept the rule of Joseph Bonaparte in Spain. They had 
been restored by the Bourbon king. It was a market day 
in Pizzo, and the town was crowded with peasants from the 
surrounding country, 

Murat marched into the market-place surrounded by his 
escort, who shouted, ' Viva U nostra re Giaochimo ! ' ' Long 



THE TRAGEDY OF PIZZO \ 291 

live our king, Joachim ! ' But there was no response. 
After a few moments of astonished perplexity the people 
gathered in hostile crowds, and with sticks, stones, and knives 
made a fierce attack on the handful of adventurers. One 
of the Corsicans was killed. Every one of them was more 
or less injured. A woman — doubtless a mother of brigands, 
whose sons had been among the victims of Manhes — struck 
Murat in the face, yelling out, ' You talk of liberty and you 
had four of my sons shot ! ' 

Driven from the market-place, the party fought their 
way to the seashore, only to find that Barbara had taken 
alarm and was running out to sea, heedless of their signals. 
Then they tried to escape into the country, but were broken 
up and made prisoners in twos and threes. Murat, with 
his clothes torn and bleeding from a cut in the forehead, 
was marched back a prisoner with the captured Corsicans. 
They were all huddled together in one of the lower rooms of 
the Castello, 

Here the Spaniard, Alcala, came to their assistance. 
He persuaded the gendarmes who had taken charge of them 
to give them more roomy quarters, and himself brought a 
doctor to attend to their wounds, provided Murat and others 
who needed it with a change of sound clothes, and had a 
meal served to them with some good wine. Murat thanked 
him for his courtesy, which was continued during the few 
days of his imprisonment. 

General Nunziante, the commandant of Calabria, promptly 
arrived with a detachment of troops. Murat was brought 
before him and questioned. He denied that he had come 
to Pizzo to attempt an insurrection. He declared that he 
was on his way to Trieste to avail himself of the Emperor 
of Austria's offer, and that he had been driven into Pizzo 
by bad weather and want of supplies, and had come there 
only to obtain provisions and the means of continuing his 
journey. He declared further that it was against his 
wishes that his escort had raised the cry of ' Long hve our 
king, Joachim ! ' 

On 13 October a court-martial was assembled at the 



292 JOACHIM MURAT 

Castello to try him on the charge of exciting to civil war 
and appearing in arms against the King of the Two Sicilies. 
The court was composed in part of officers who owed him 
their promotion. Murat refused to plead before them 
or to make any defence. On one accusation only, which 
was not brought against him, but which he thought was in 
the minds of the Bourbons who now sought his death, he 
spoke strongly. ' I had nothing to do,' he protested, 
* with the tragedy of the Duke d'Enghien, which King 
Ferdinand wishes to avenge on me. I call God, before 
whom I am about to appear, to witness that I speak 
the truth.' We may believe that he spoke in good 
faith. 

There were two sittings, at ten in the morning and at 
four in the afternoon, when the evidence of various witnesses 
was taken. At the second sitting the court unanimously 
found the prisoner guilty, and sentenced him to be shot 
in the courtyard of the castle within an hour. 

When he heard the sentence, which was read to him in 
the room used as his prison, he asked to be allowed to write 
a last letter to his family. This was what he wrote : — 

* My dear Caroline, — My last hour is come. In a few 
minutes I shall have ceased to live ; in a few minutes you 
will no longer have a husband. Never forget me ; my life 
has not been stained with any injustice. Adieu my Achille, 
adieu my Letitia, adieu my Lucien, adieu my Louise ; 
show the world that you are worthy of me. I leave you without 
a kingdom and without resources, in the midst of my many 
enemies ■ show yourselves superior to misfortune, think of what 
you are and what you have been, and God will bless you. Do 
not speak ill of my memory. I declare that my greatest sorrow 
in the last moments of my life is to die far from my children.' 

He enclosed a lock of his hair in the letter and handed it 
to one of the Neapolitan officers. While he had been writing 
it the cure of Pizzo, Canon Masdea, a venerable man of 
seventy years, had entered the room. Murat rose and 
greeted the priest, who asked him if he remembered meeting 



THE TRAGEDY OF PIZZO 293 

him and giving him an alms for the poor and money for 
the repairs of his church when he visited Pizzo two years 
before ? Murat rephed that he remembered the incident. 
' Sire,' said Canon Masdea, ' I have come to ask you for a 
far more important favour.' Murat asked what could he do 
in his actual position, and the priest then said he wished 
him to confess. 

Murat refused, but in a way that showed Masdea he 
was thinking that what was asked for was an admission 
that he had been justly sentenced to death. ' Sire,' said 
the priest, ' I am not speaking of a judicial confession, but 
of a sacramental confession to reconcile you with God, 
before whom you are going to appear at the end of the 
next quarter of an hour.' ' Ah, yes. I am ready, but 
how can it be done in so short a time ? ' asked the 
prisoner. 

At this moment the officer who was to command the 
firing-party intervened, and said there was no time to spare. 
Five minutes of the quarter were gone already. Masdea 
turned to him and said that the quarter of an hour must 
not even begin till he had given his penitent absolution, 
that no power on earth would prevent him from doing his 
duty, and that if he were interfered with he would appeal 
to God against such treatment. The officer was evidently 
impressed and retired. 

Turning to Murat Masdea continued, ' I am here for your 
sake. Do not fear anything.' The prisoner offered him 
a chair and sat down beside him, but he had hardly begun 
his confession when he fell on his knees. 

It is unlikely that he had observed any rehgious practices 
for years. The armies of the Empire had neither chaplains 
nor church parades. But face to face with death he had 
returned to long-neglected observances, and, in the hght of 
stem reality before him, felt the reaHty of his early behefs. 
It is easy to cast doubt on a death-bed repentance. But a 
man placed as Murat was had no motive for playing a part. 
Those who share the faith of the good priest of Pizzo will 
see in the soldier king's act of penitence a grace given. 



294 JOACHIM MURAT 

perhaps, in reward for such charitable acts as that of which 
Masdea had reminded him. Even those who hold other 
forms of Christian behef may recognize in Murat's humble 
acknowledgment of his misdeeds an act at least as honour- 
able to him as the intrepidity with which he met his doom. 

As he rose from his knees after receiving absolution, 
resignation was added to his habitual courage. ' Now let 
us go,' he said, ' and God's will be done ! ' Masdea asked 
him to state in writing that he meant to die as a Christian. 
Murat hesitated. A vague suspicion of some use that 
might be made of the paper by his political enemies flashed 
across his mind. * Do you mean to dishonour me after my 
death ? ' Masdea replied that on the contrary he wished 
to have evidence to confound those who would misrepresent 
him. Murat took up the pen with which he had written 
his last letter, and wrote on a piece of paper, ' Je meurs en 
bon Chretien,' signed it, and handed it to the priest saying, 
for the second time, ' Let us go, and God's will be done ! ' 

Outside in the narrow courtyard of the castle the firing- 
party was mustering, twelve men, commanded by a sergeant. 
Presently the officer who was to carry out the execution 
entered and bade Murat follow him. He said farewell to 
Masdea and walked out with a firm step. 

He faced the firing-party, refusing either to have his eyes 
bandaged or to turn his back to them. ' Soldiers,' he said, 
' do your duty. Fire at the heart, but spare the face.' 
He stood unflinching and smiling while the musket-barrels 
were levelled, and as the volley rang out he fell on his face 
without even a groan. Six bullets had struck him in the 
chest, and one in the right cheek. The same evening his 
body was placed in a plain coffin and buried in the common 
grave of the churchyard of Pizzo.^ 



^ A horrible story was circulated some years later to the effect that 
Murat's head was cut off and sent to Naples that Ferdinand and his 
court might gloat over the destruction of their enemy. M. de Sassenay 
(Les Dernier s Mots du Roi Murat) examines all the evidence and rejects 
it as a fiction. He points out that all contemporary writers, even those 
most hostile to the Bourbons, say nothing of it. It is a malicious inven- 
tion of a later time. 



THE TRAGEDY OF PIZZO 295 

So ended a career that is one of the romances of history. 
In the noblest sense of the word Murat was no hero. But 
he had the courage both of action and of endurance in a high 
degree. His last act is enough to prove this, even without 
the record of his exploits on fifty battlefields. His reckless 
daring, his faculty of inspiring it in others, his rapid grasp 
of the possibilities of the moment amid the danger and 
confusion of the fight, and his swift decision and unhesitating 
action, made him a great cavalry leader. But he was not 
a great general in the sense of being fitted to plan and 
conduct the co-ordinated movements of armies in a cam- 
paign, and even as a cavalry leader this lack of strategic 
insight led him into errors. 

As King of Naples he was a popular ruler, and the people 
he governed were the better for his rule. As a man his 
faults lie on the surface. His character was marred by 
almost puerile vanity ; he was led into weak following of 
the easier of two courses by his self-seeking ambition ; 
and he again and again showed a want of balanced judgment 
and a liability to be dominated by the impulse of the 
moment. The best side of his character was the Idndly 
part of his nature. In days when men had been steeled 
against pity by war and revolution there was no cruelty in 
Murat. 

Strange as it may seem, this thorough soldier, whose 
orders on the battlefield often meant swift death to hundreds 
and prolonged suffering to hundreds more, shrank with 
horror from the idea of killing a fellow man. Agar tells 
how more than once he said to him at Naples, ' What gives 
me the most heartfelt satisfaction when I think of my 
military career is, that I have never seen a man fall killed 
by my hand. Doubtless it is possible that in firing a pistol- 
shot at enemies who attacked me, or whom I was pursuing, 
I may have wounded some one, even mortally ; but if so 
I knew nothing of it. If a man had ever fallen dead before 
me by my act, the picture of it would always be before me, 
and would pursue me to the grave.' This was why, as he 
led his most famous charges, the diamond-hilted sabre 



296 JOACHIM MURAT 

remained in its scabbard. He had the same horror of 
military executions. Caroline used to tell how, after a 
mutiny at Leghorn, when a court-martial had condemned 
the three ringleaders to death, he was so impressed by the 
men's regret for their misconduct and filled with such pity 
for their fate, that he carried out a sham execution at sun- 
set, arranged that the condemned men should fall before 
a volley of blank cartridge, and had them covered up 
for a while, and removed in the dark to a place where 
they were given disguise and shipped away from the 
port. 

All who knew him well told of his affection for his wife 
and children. Napoleon joked at his cavalry general's 
being unable to read a letter from Caroline without tears 
starting to his eyes. His thoughts continually went back 
to the old home at La Bastide. He was not content with 
mere expressions of affection for his aged mother and his 
brothers and sisters. He took care that they should share 
his prosperity. Andre became his almoner for the poor 
of the district. As King of Naples he wrote to him to take 
care that the venerable cure of La Bastide, then broken in 
health, should want for nothing ; arranged for the repair 
of his church and presbytery, and rejoiced the old priest by 
sending him a gift of altar plate that is still treasured in 
the village church. 

It was doubtless this gentle, kindly side of his character 
that won him so many friends, even in the days of his ad- 
versity, when there was only danger and loss in espousing 
his fallen cause. Those who had known him best, like Agar, 
Count of Mosbourg, his lifelong friend, were as devoted to 
him after his tragic end, and refused to believe any evil of 
him. There must have been good in the man who could 
inspire such devotion. 

Agar, in the hope that some day his remains might be 
removed from their nameless grave at Pizzo and consigned 
to a fitting monument, wrote an epitaph which sums up his 
career, noting the dates of his birth and death ; enume- 
rating his titles and dignities ; reciting the names of the 



THE TRAGEDY OF PIZZO 297 

countries that were the scenes of his mihtary exploits ; and 
ending with the record that " he knew how to die " : — 

JOACHIM-NAPOLEON MURAT 

NE A LA BASTIDE-FORTUNIERE, DEPARTEMENT DU LOT 

LE 25 MARS 1767 

MORT AU PIZZO, LE 13 OCTOBRE 1815 

IL PUT SOLDAT 

MARECHAL DE l'eMPIRE FRAN^AIS 

PRINCE ET GRAND AMIRAL DE FRANCE 

GRAND DUG DE BERG 

ROI DE NAPLES 

BEAU-FRERE DE L'EMPEREUR NAPOLEON 

SA GLOIRE MILITAIRE IMMORTALISA 

EN ITALIE ET EN EGYPTE, SON NOM DE MURAT 

EN AUTRICHE, EN PRUSSE, EN POLOGNE 

SON TITRE DE GRAND-DUC DE BERG 

EN RUSSIE ET EN SAXE 

SON TITRE DE ROI DE NAPLES 

IL SUT VAINCRE, IL SUT REGNER 

IL SUT MOURIR, 



298 JOACHIM MURAT 



APPENDIX 

NOTE ON SOME SOURCES AND AUTHORITIES FOR THE 
LIFE OF JOACHIM MURAT 

The story of Joachim Murat is so closely linked with that of 
Napoleon that the standard authorities for the history of the 
latter and his correspondence are also sources for the Hfe-story 
of Murat. 

The earlier biographies of Murat by Coletta (Paris, 1821) and 
Gallois (Paris, 1828), and even Helfert's work (Vienna, 1878), 
have, in many important points, been rendered obsolete by the 
publication of documents not available at the time these works 
were written. 

The best modern biography is the work of MM. Jules Chavanon 
and Georges St. Yves, Joachim Miirat, 1767-1815 (Paris, 1905). 
It is especially valuable for the use it makes of the mass of MS. 
materials in the French archives, and the list of sources in print 
and manuscript prefixed to each chapter suppUes a very complete 
bibhography of the subject up to the date of pubHcation. 
Documents published since 1905 by the Murat family have since 
cleared up important points, and suggest revision of the view 
taken by MM. Chavanon and St. Yves of Murat's relations to 
Bonaparte during the later stages of the campaign of Italy. 

Lumbroso's Correspondance de Joachim Murat is a selection of 
his letters. A complete collection is in process of publication 
from the family archives. The three volumes that have appeared 
bring the series up to August 1805. The documents are illustrated 
with valuable notes by the editor, M. Paul le Breton, Hbrarian of 
the BibUoth^que National. {Lettres et Documents pour servir 4 
VHistoire de Joachim Murat. Publics par S. A. le Prince Murat. 
Avec une Introduction et des Notes par Paul le Breton. Paris, 



APPENDIX 299 

1908-1910. Vol. i., 1767-1801. Vol. ii., 1801-1803. Vol. iii., 
1803-1804. Vol. iv. 1805-1806.) 

General Thoumas's Les Grands Cavaliers du Premier Empire, 
lere Serie (Paris, 1890), includes a brilliant sketch of Murat's 
military career, and incidental light is thrown upon it in some 
of the other biographies included in the series, notably that of 
Montbrun. 

The memoirs of General BeUiard, Murat's chief of the staff in 
his most famous cavalry campaigns, were published in 1842-43 
{BeUiard Memoir es, ecrits par lui-meme et mis en ordre par Vinet 
I'un de ses aides-de-camp). A very full and competent work on 
BeUiard's Hfe, based on these memoirs and other sources, was 
pubHshed last year : Le Lieutenant-General Comte BeUiard, 
Chef d'etat-major de Murat. Par le General Derrecagaix. 

M. Frederic Masson, in his Napoleon et sa Famille (nine volumes, 
bringing the history up to 1814), deals largely with Murat's 
career, but the writer's standpoint and his desire to explain 
everything on the theory that Napoleon was an incomparable 
genius whose plans were frustrated by the incompetence and the 
perversity of his relatives, makes him bitterly hostile to Murat. 
His attitude towards him and Caroline is that of a counsel for 
the prosecution. But his untiring industry has collected a mass 
of interesting details. 

Light from a very hostile source is thrown on Murat's dispute 
with Landrieux, in M. Leonce Grasilien's Memoir es de VAdjudant- 
General Jean Landrieux (Paris, 1893) . 

Murat's part in the affair of the Duke d'Enghien is discussed by 
most of the writers on the subject. Henri Welschinger's Due 
d'Enghien is a special study of the affair. Mosbourg's defence of 
his friend is reproduced in the third volume of the Lettres et 
Documents with remarks by Prince Murat, and is discussed in 
the introduction to Count Murat's work on Murat in Spain. 

Murat's brief reign as Grand Duke of Berg has been studied by 
a German historian, Rudolf Gocke, Das Grossherzogfhum Berg 
unter Joachim Murat Napoleon und Ludwig Napoleon (Cologne, 
1877). Another episode in his career is elaborately dealt with 
in Comte Murat's work on his Spanish mission : Murat, Lieu- 
tenant de I'Empereur en Espagne, 1808. D'apres sa Correspondance 



300 JOACHIM MURAT 

iiiedite et des Documenis originaux. Par le Comte Murat (Paris, 
1897). The introduction contains interesting documents and 
details on his previous career, M. H. Weil's work, Le Prince 
Eugene et Murat, throws great light upon the period of Murat's 
revolt from Napoleon. For the story of his flight in 1S15 and 
his tragic end, among other sources there are his agent Macirone's 
narrative, Faits interessants relatifs a la Chute et a la Mort de 
Joachim Murat, and the Marquis de Sassenay's elaborate study, 
Les Derniers Mois de Murat. 

Other sources on various points are the lives of Napoleon's 
sisters, the military memoirs of the time (especially Marbot), 
and the detailed histories of the various campaigns in which 
Murat took a prominent part. The mass of this incidental 
material is so great that I make no claim to have collected all 
the detail available. But I hope I have neglected nothing of 
importance. 



INDEX 



Aboukir, battle of, 48. 

Agar, Count of Mosbourg, 105, 143, 

144, 145, 155, 198, 201, 202, 296. 
Alcala, 291. 

Ambrosio (Neapolitan general), 266. 
Auersperg, Count, 131, 132. 
Auffenberg (Austrian general), 122. 
Augereau, 155, 160, 162, 163. 
Austerlitz, battle of, 135. 

Bagration (Russian general), 133, 

134, 168, 229. 
Barclay de Tolly (Russian general), 

227, 229, 231. 
Barras, 19, 28, 29, 38, 52, 53. 
Bastide and Bastide Murat. See La 

Bastide. 
Bastit family, neighbours of the Murats, 

8, 12. 

Franfois, 13, 70- 

Mion, Murat's love affair with, 

8, 12, 13. 
Bathori, the sword of, 157. 
Beaumont (French cavalry general), 

121, 126, 140, 141, 147, 150. 
Becker (French cavalry general), 147. 
Bellegarde (Austrian general), 273, 

274. 
Belliard, General (Murat's chief of the 

staff), 116, 146, 222, 223, 228, 233, 

236, 243. 
Benningsen (Russian general), 154, 

158, 159, 162, 163, 165, 166, 168. 
Bentinck, Lord William, 249, 250, 

251, 268, 269, 273. 
Bernadotte, 70, 73, 117, 128, 152, 

153, 159, 240, 262. 
Berthier, Alexandre, 35, 37, 38, 52, 63, 

64, 66, 87, 106, 107, 109, 166, 231, 

240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 253, 261. 

Cesar, 69, 106, 107. 

Bertrand, 114, 131. 
Bessieres, 8, 50, 56, 134, 163. 
Blucher, 141, 142, 150, 152, 153, 259, 

260, 
Bonaparte, Caroline, wife of Joachim 
Murat, 32, 54, 55, 67, 73, 75> 78, 
83. 88, 93, 95, 99. 102. 1 10. I"' 



112, 113, 139, 144, 169, 170, 171, 
172, 206, 209, 210, 212, 217, 220, 
224, 245, 246, 247, 249, 252, 253, 
254, 255, 258, 264, 268, 270, 282, 
283, 288, 292, 296. 
Bonaparte, Jerome, King of Westphalia, 
154, 155, 156, 169, 227, 244. 

Joseph (King of Naples, and later 

of Spain), 33, 57, 70, 91, 123, 138, 
169, 194, 196, 197, 198, 200, 201, 
279, 280. 

Josephine (Empress), 23, 27, 33, 

34, 55. 75. 209. 

Louis (King of Holland), 91, 138, 

169, 172, 263. 

Lucien (Prince of Canino), 53, 91, 

279. 

Napoleon, 19, 21 ; campaign of 

Italy, 22 ; Egyptian expedition, 39 ; 
coup d'etat of Brumaire, 52 ; cam- 
paign of Marengo, 59 ; attempted 
assassination, 75; President of Italian 
Republic, 92 ; affair of the Due 
d'Enghien, 105 ; coming of the Em- 
pire, 109 ; projects against England, 
113; campaign of Ulm and Auster- 
litz, 119; campaign of Jena, 146; 
enters Berlin, 150; Polish campaign, 
158; Eylau, 159; Tilsit, 169; 
Spanish policy, 175 ; gives Naples 
to Murat, 174; Russian campaign, 
222; Leipzig campaign, 256; the 
Hundred Days, 278. 
Borodino, battle of, 231. 
Brueys, Admiral, 39, 44. 
Brune, 73, 74, 75, 76, 86, 285. 
Buxhowden (Russian general), 154, 158. 

Cadoddal, George, 108. 

Cahors, I, 3, lOI. 

Campochiaro, Duke of, 248, 249, 260, 

266. 
Campredon, General, 203. 
Carascosa (Neapolitan general), 266, 

282. 
Cariati, Prince (Murat's envoy to 

Vienna), 242, 247, 248, 250, 251, 

252, 254, 255. 260, 261, 262. 
301 



302 



JOACHIM MURAT 



Cnstlereagh, 26S. 

Cavaignac, General, 203, 213, 21=;, 

216. 
Charles, Archduke, 20S. 
Charles IV of Spain, 173, iSo, iS?. 

1S6, 1S7. /J . i> 

Clarke, Due de P'eltre, 251, 253. 
Coffin, Colonel, 24S, 249, 250. 
Consalvi, Cardinal, So, SS, 93. 

Dampierre, General, 13. 14. 
Davoilt, 117, 120, 135, 148. 154, 155, 

159, 16S, 22S, 229, 230, 231, 232, 

242. 
Desaix, 41. 

Duhesmo, General, 174, 17S. 
Duinouriez, General, 10, 13, 14. 
Dupont, General, 174, 1S2, 214. 
Durant, Baron de (French ambassador 

at Naples), 220, 247, 250, 252, 253, 

260, 266. 
Duroc, 52. 
D'Urre de Molans, General (Mural's 

patron), 9, 10, 13, 17. 

Enguien, Due d', 104 etc., 292. 
Espagne (French cavalry general). 147, 

166, 167. 
Eugene, 200, 209, 241, 244, 251, 2<;S, 

262, 263, 266, 267, 269, 270, 271, 

273. 274- 
Eylau, battle of, 162. 

Fai POULT, 24, 272, 274. 

Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, 
afterwards Ferdinand VII of Spain, 
174. iSo, iSi, 1S5, 1S6, 1S7, 190', 
194. 

Fesch, Cardinal, 73, 103. 

Fouche, 107, 266, 267, 2S3. 

GODOY, 144, 169, 173, 177, 17S, 179, 

1S5. 
Grouchy (French ca\-alry general), 147, 

150, 162, 163, 222, 227, 22S, 233. 

Hautpoul, D', (French cavalry 
general), 121, 124, 129, 133, 147, 
14S, 150, 161, 162, 163. 

llohenlohe, Prince, 1 50 etc. 

liohenzollern, Prince' Charles of, 96, 
171. 

Jena, battle of, 14S. 
Jourdan. 203. 
Junot, 46, 170, 173. 

KiENMAYER (Austrian general), i -"g 
130. 132. 



Kleber, 45, 47, 4S. 

Klein (French cavalry general), 121, 

126, 127, 147, 148, 150. 160, 161, 

162. 
Kutusoff (Russian general), 12S etc., 

»34, 231, 236, 243. 

La Bastide (birthplace of Murat), 2. 
101. 

l.amarque. General, 203, 213, 215. 

Landrieux, Jean, 15, 16, 17, 18. 

Lannes, 45, 48, 51, 52, 54, 55, 57, 
117, 120, 122, 124, 129, 131, 133, 
134, 135. 150, 151, 15s, ibS, 19Q. 

Lanusse, (.'.eneral, 43, 48. 

Lasalle (French cavalry general), 147, 
150, 151, 152, 166, 167. 

Latour-Maubourg (French cavalry gen- 
eral, 222, 227, 233, 236, 237, 257, 

259, 2t)I,262. 

Leclerc, General (t^rst husband of 
Paiiline Bonaparte), 33, 53, 92, 97. 

Colonel, 214. 

Lefebvre, 165, 166. 
Lowe, Sir Hudson, 203. 

Macdonald, 73, 74, 243, 259. 

Macirone, 2S5, 2S6. 

Mack (Austrian general), 119 etc. 

Maghella, 215, 219. 

Manhes, General, 203, 209, 2S3, 2S8. 

Marengo, battle of, 64. 

Maret, Due de Bassano, 240. 

Maria Carolina, Bourbon Queen of the 

Two Sicilies, 212, 215. 
Maria Louisa, Empress, 210,267, 279. 
Marmont. 51, 52, 117. 
Masdea, Canon, 24S, 292, 293, 294. 
Massena. 29, 59, 60, 62. 
Melzi, Vice-President of the Cisalpine 

and Itahan Republics, SS, 92, 96 

etc. 
Menou, General, S9. 
Metternich, 251, 254, 255, 268. 
Mier, Count Von (Austrian envoy to 

Naples), 252, 25S, 264, 26s, 268, 

270, 274. 
Milhaud (French cavalry general), 127, 

129, 147, 162. 
Miloradovitch (Russian general), 234, 

242. 
Miollis, General, 77, 200, 207, 256, 

269. 
Moncey, 174. 175. 179, 1S2. 
Montbrun (French cavalry general), 

222, 225. 226, 227, 229, 233. 
Monthyon, de. General, 185. 
Moreau, 53, 59, 61, 73. 
Mortier, 130, 174. 



INDEX 



303 



Murat, Achilla (eldest son of Joachim 
Murat), 78, 83, 88, 92, 94, 140, 240. 

Andr^ (elder brother of Joachim 

Murat), 3, 12, 14, 21, 34, 67, 71, 

94, 112, 137, 296. 

Antoinette (niece of Joachim), 11, 

95, 171, 198. 

Clotilde Jeanne (niece of 

Joachim), 95. 

Jean Adrian (nephew of Joachim), 

II, 39, 44, 68. 

Jeanne, nie Loubi^res (mother of 

Joachim), 2, 56, 67, 70, 84, 95, 102, 
137- 

Murat, Joachim, birth and parentage, 
2 ; education at Cahors and the 
Toulouse seminary, 3; leaves the 
seminary to enlist in the Chasseurs 
a Cheval de Champagne, 4 ; pro- 
motion to non-comrnissioned rank 
and long leave at La Bastide,4; sent 
to Paris for the Fete of the Federa- 
tion with the local delegates of the 
National Guard, 5; recalled to his 
regiment in garrison at Schlestadt, 6; 
sent to Montmedy after the king's 
attempted flight, 7 ; appointed to 
serve in the Constitutional Guard, 8 ; 
resigns and rejoins his regiment, 8 ; 
promoted to lieutenant, 9 ; mission to 
Paris, 9, 10 ; serves on the northern 
frontier as aide-de-camp to General 
d'Urre de Molans, li ; again in 
Paris, II ; return to the army, 13; 
promoted captain, 14 ; attached as 
f/^e/'i/'ei'fat/rcw to Landrieux's Hussars 
on their reorganization, 15 ; first war 
services, 16 ; quarrel with Landrieux, 
17; imprisoned after Thermidor, 18 ; 
liberated, and rejoins his regiment at 
Paris, 19; services to Bonaparte on 
the day of Vend^miaire, 19, 20 ; pro- 
moted to colonel, 20 ; chefde brigade, 
21 ; aide-de-camp to Bonaparte in 
the campaign of Italy (1796), 22 etc. ; 
sent to Paris with dispatches and 
promoted GSniral de Brigade, 23 ; 
services in second stage of the cam- 
paign, 23 etc. ; taken prisoner at 
Brescia and escapes, 25 ; exploits at 
Rivoli, 30, 31 ; meets Caroline 
Bonaparte at Mombello during the 
peace negotiations, 32 ; expedition to 
the Val Tellina, 34; shares Napoleon's 
' triumph ' at Rastatt, 35, 36 ; 
Roman expedition, 37 ; attached to 
the Egyptian expedition, 38 ; Governor 
of Kelioub, 42 ; campaign against 
Ibrahim Bey, 42, 43 ; Syrian expedi- 
tion, 45 ; battle of Aboukir, 48 ; 



Murat wounded, 49; promoted to 
General of Division, 50 ; returns to 
France with Bonaparte, 51 ; pro- 
minent part in the coup d'etat of 
Brumaire, 53 ; message to Caroline, 
54; courtship and marriage, 55-57; 
sent to Dijon to command cavalry of 
the ' Army of Reserve,' 59 ; services 
in Marengo campaign, 60-66 ; com- 
mand of training camp at Beauvais, 
68 ; command of ' Army of Observa- 
tion ' at Dijon, 71 ; move to Milan, 
74 ; command in central Italy, 77 ; 
negotiations with Pius VII and 
Cardinal Consalvi, 80 ; Commander- 
in-chief of the Army of Italy, 86 
etc ; buys property in France — the 
Hotel Th61usson, 90 ; religious mar- 
riage ceremony, 92 ; proclamation of 
Italian Republic, 92 ; visits to Rome 
and Naples, 94 ; troubles with Vice- 
President Melzi at Milan, 96 etc, ; 
elected to the Corps Legislatif, 103 ; 
Military Governor of Paris, 103 ; 
his part in the affair of the Due 
d'Enghien, 104 etc. ; Marshal of 
France and Grand Admiral of the 
Empire, 109; his fortune, iii ; 
command of the cavalry of the Arm^e 
d'Angleterre, 113; reconnaissance 
of south Germany, 114; command 
of Cavalry Reserve of the Grand 
Army, 115; Lieutenant-General of 
the Emperor during the prepara- 
tions for the Ulm campaign, 116; 
campaign of Ulm, 118 ; battle 
of Wertingen, 122 ; operations 
round Ulm, 124; pursuit of the 
Archduke Ferdinand and General 
Werneck, 127 ; pursuit of Kutusoff, 
129; occupies Vienna, 130; seizes 
the Danube bridge by a trick, 131 ; 
battle of Austerlitz, 135 ; the Grand 
Duchy of Berg, 139; campaign of 
Jena, 146 ; the pursuit after Jena, 
149 ; occupies Warsaw, 156 ; Polish 
ambitions, 157; campaign of Eylau, 
159; campaign of Friedland, 166; 
Tilsit, 169 ; sent to Spain as Lieu- 
tenant-General of the Emperor, 175 ; 
enters Madrid, 181 ; suppresses rising 
of 2 May, 191 ; accepts crown of 
Naples, 195 ; rule at Naples, 198 ; 
friction with Napoleon, 204 ; Sicilian 
expedition, 215 ; commands the 
cavalry in the Russian campaign of 
1812, 222 ; Borodino, 231 ; enters 
Moscow, 234 ; the retreat, 237 ; 
given command of the Grand Army 
on Napoleon leaving it, 238 ; fails 



304 



, JOACH MURAT 



as its commander and returns to 
Naples, 244 ; negotiations with the 
Allies, 248 ; the Leipzig campaign, 
256 ; renewed negotiations with the 
Allies, 264 ; marches Neapolitan 
army into central Italy, 266 ; in- 
trigues and hesitating conduct during 
the campaign, 270 ; doubtful position 
at Naples after 1S14, 276 ; raises the 
standard against Austria, 279 ; failure 
of campaign, 281 ; return to Naples, 
2S2 ; flight, 283 ; adventures during 
and after the Hundred Days, 2S4 ; 
in Corsica, 286 ; embarks for Cala- 
bria, 2S7 ; landing at Pizzo, 290 ; 
capture and imprisonment, 291 ; trial 
and execution, 292. 
Murat, Lucien Napoleon (second son of 
Joachim), 100. 

Marie (eldest daughter of 

Joachim), 94. 

Pierre (father of Joachim), 2, 39, 

44, 50, 56- 

Pierre (brother of Joachim), 7, 9, 

II. 

Pierre Gaetan (nephew of 

Joachim), 94, 95. 

Nansouty (French cavalry general), 
133. 147, J48, 222, 227, 229, 233. 

Neipperg, Von (Austrian general and 
diplomatist), 267, 280. 

Nelson, 39, 44. 

Ney, 117, 120, 124, 125, 126, 149, 154, 
159, 166, 231, 241, 260. 

Nicolas, Felice, 250. 

Nugent (Austrian general), 267, 269. 

Nunziante (Neapolitan general), 291. 

Orange-Nassau, Prince of, 149. 
Oudinot, 123, 127, 131, 132, 135. 

Partounneaux, General, 208, 213, 
21c;. 



Perignon, Marshal de, 203. 

Pignatelli Strongoli (Neapolitan gen- 
eral), 203. 

Pino (Italian general), 266, 269. 

Pius VII, 80, 88, 94, 173, 200, 209, 
274, 276, 279, 280. 

Platoff, 236. 

Poniatowski, Prince, 157, 233, 236, 
260. 

Pyramids, battle of the, 41. 

Rapp, General, 243. 

Santerre (General of the National 

Guard), 10. 
Savary, 106, 107, 109. 
Sahuc (French cavalry general), 147. 
St. Cyr, Gouvion, 100, 241. 
San Gallo, Marquis de, 198, 204, 250, 

251, 252, 255, 264, 266, 268, 282. 
Schwarzenberg, Prince, 242, 260, 
Sebastiani, 236, 257. 
Sidney Smith, Admiral, 45, 48. 
Soult, 117, 120, 129, 133, 134, 152, 

153, 160, 162, 166, 168. 
Suchet, 135. 

Talleyrand family, patrons of the 

Murats, 3. 
Talleyrand, 5, 141, 142. 

Ulm, campaign of, 126. 
Urre de Molans. See D'Urre de 
Molans. 

Vandamme, 121, 259. 
Vauguyon, Le, 200, 264. 
Victor, 152, 259, 260. 

Walther (French cavalry general), 

121, 133. 
Weimar, Grand Duke of, 150, 152. 
Wertingen, battle of, 122. 

ZucCHi (Italian general), 274. 



Printed by T. and A, Constable, Printers to His Majesty 
at the Edinburgh University Press 



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